Three Qualities Of Southern Fiction In "Everything That Rises Must Converge".

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Three Qualities of Southern Fiction in "Everything That Rises Must Converge."� Nigger! A harsh word often heard years ago. It was what African Americans were labeled as. Whether they liked it or not, they were known as, "niggers"�. Their feelings did not matter to the white people and nor did their beliefs. There only purpose was to make money for whites and show that a white person was wealthy and maybe even powerful. But blacks could only stand this treatment for so long until one day they started taking a stand. It was a slow process for blacks to gain their freedom and they endured many cruel punishments to reach the triumph of freedom. Flannery O'Connor takes us into these harsh times when blacks were fighting for their freedom. This story takes place after the bus boycott. It tells of a mother and her son, Julian, in times when the world was changing for the better for blacks and how the whites felt they were losing their power.

O'Connor integrates three qualities of Southern fiction into her story: social superiority, generational conflict, and racial tension.

One of the first problems shown in the story is Julian's mother's need to show her social superiority. "You remain who you are."� Julian hates hearing his mother make comments like this. He feels she thinks to high of herself and lives in the past. When he gets angry with her comments, she explains to him what a strong back ground he comes from. Julian's mother tells him how his great-grandfather owned a plantation with two hundred slaves and also about his great-grandmother who was a Godhigh. Julian's mother is a proud white woman who wishes her son would understand how socially superior he is to other people, especially blacks. Her high standing...