In the story, "Everything That Rises Must Converge" the son named Julian is accompanying his mother to a reducing class at the Y.  Along the trip the son is having constant internal thoughts and building resentments towards his mother and her beliefs.  Julian resented everything from how she dressed to her old generation beliefs of how African-American people should be treated.  Julian's built up anger, frustration, and resentment lead him to his rebellion against his mother's older generation beliefs.

Julian's mother has been told that she must lose twenty pounds because of her blood pressure, so every Wednesday night Julian has to take his mother downtown for her reducing class at the Y.  Julian's mother would always remind Julian of all the things she did for him, and because of that he could at least take her to the Y every Wednesday. Every Wednesday Julian's resentment would grow and grow and "every Wednesday night he braced himself and took her" (O'Conner 181).  When O'Connor uses the word "braced" it shows Julian trying to restrain his feelings against his mother.  Feelings of anger and resentment from everything his mother has done for him. Every Wednesday he would brace his anger, gather his thoughts, and escort his mother downtown. 

While getting dressed for her Y class, Julian and his mother got into a small altercation over something as petty as a hideous hat (181).  This hideous hat was another object on the long list of things Julian resented about his mother.  For example, "Everything that gave her pleasure was small and depressed him." (181). When O'Conner uses the word small, he is trying to show how little Julian's mothers beliefs and values are.  Also, when O'Connor uses the word depressed, it is a small foreshadowing of how deep and dark Julian's internal thoughts were.  The word depression always comes with a negative connotation, and when O'Connor uses it to describe Julian's internal conflict it begins a snowball effect of rebellion inside of Julian.  

The snowball of rebellion inside of Julian began to grow as Julian and his mother made their way down the sidewalk to the bus stop.  O'Connor beings to dig deeper into Julian's thoughts and presents to the reader how challenging taking his mother to the Y really is. For example, "Julian walked with his hands in his pockets, his head down and thrust forward and his eyes glazed with the determination to make himself completely numb during the time he would be sacrificed to her pleasure." (182) When a man, like Julian, walks along side of his own mother with his head down and his hands in his pockets, it shows he is becoming more and more introverted and secluded to his thoughts. Next, O'Connor begins to use a string of imagery. For example, he uses words like numb and sacrificed, to show the apparent growth of Julian's resentment and stirring rebellion. 

With all the rage, depression, and resentment bottled inside, he finally exploded and his rebellion against his mother had officially begun.  The conversation, again, began with the discussion of the hat Julian's mother was wearing and ended with a discussion referencing African-Americans. Julian's mother was discussing her feelings about, "the world in the mess it's in." (183) Here, Julian's mother is referring to the desegregation happening around the world and more specifically, on the buses that she rides. The desegregation that Julian's mother is discussing occurred, "On Tuesday, November 13, 1956, as court proceedings were taking place, news came from Washington that the U.S Supreme Court had affirmed the Federal Court's decision that segregation on city buses was unconstitutional." (Paulson). The discussion continued on and Julian became even more against his mothers words.  Julian's mother was telling him that she could be gracious to anybody because she knows who she is. Those few words sent Julian over the edge; O'Connor describes Julian's attack with one word, "savagely" (183). Julian began to rip into his mother, saying, "They don't give a damn for your graciousness, knowing who you are is good for one generation only." This discussion is one of the most important discussions throughout the entire bus ride.  Julian intently curses at his mother, condescends her, and specifically attacks her generation.

Julian continues his rage and rebellion against his mother as the topic of segregation and desegregation continued.  More seriously and "tensely" Julian says, "Will you look around you, and see where you are now?" (183) Here, again, Julian directly attacks his mothers older generation. When Julian says, "look around you", he is trying to get his mother to look at surroundings. Julian wants her to understand they are in a desegregated town riding a desegregated bus.  Julian then asked her if she seen where she was now.  Now, in that moment, Julian wanted his mother to understand they are no longer in her world or in her generation. Julian tries to persuade his mother to give up this talk and enter his generation of beliefs; of course she did not give up, and kept the discussion alive.

Finally, Julian's mother begins again by saying, "You remain what you are," (183). She is trying to get Julian to see things her way; she is saying the Julian that you cannot out grow your heritage or the generation that raised you. You will remain what you are no matter how many changes come about. Julian really begins to get upset and fed up with the continuation of this discussion. The discussion is a conversation that he and his mother have quite often and still she does not see it his way. The reader then learns, that Julian's great-grandfather had a plantation and owned slaves. In the late 17th and 18th centuries, black slaves would work under a slave owner or master. Most slaves would live on large farms or on small plantations, many masters or slave owners owned less that 50 slaves (Slavery). Later, from the 1830s to the 1860's, the movement to abolish slavery in American gained more and more strength in the northern parts of the United States. Then, on January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln made it official that any slaves within a state are "forever free" (Slavery). When slaves became free it was not that long and O'Conner wanted to make that fact evident by having Julian's great-grandfather be a slave owner of over 200 slaves. Julian's mother tries to explain, "Your great-grandfather had a plantation and two hundred slaves." (183).  Julian is getting more upset with his mother, because he just told her to look around, look at the world today. He irritably states, "There are no more slaves." (183) Julian tries to make this last ditch effort to make it sink in with his mother. Still, Julian's mother refused to submit to Julian's younger generation beliefs.

Throughout the story, Julian's character went from a weak in spirit and in mind man that would always fall to what his mother, who did so much for him, would say and developed in a strong young man that would stand up for himself and what he believed in. His bottled up anger and resentment eventually lead him to starting the rebellion between his younger generation and his mothers older generation.
