Throughout history, the idea of reform socially or politically always precedes the action either by legislation, or violent upheaval.  The eventual acceptance of the changes in our society as a whole, or by specific classes of society, may require a large amount of time and effort, or just may never be accepted, like it is with desegregation and integration. The Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves, but only in a legal sense, as those who were freed really had nowhere to go, nor have any idea of what to do with their newfound freedom. Brown vs. The Board of Education required that segregation in schools be ended with all due speed, yet the process was slow and the government's solutions to de facto segregation more often created more problems rather than providing solutions.

Flannery O'Conner has created a character in Julian that represents a new generation:  young, liberal, progressive in his thinking with regard to race relations.  His mother, a product of the old south, continues to maintain the long-established attitude of superiority over African-Americans.  Even though Julian considers himself a free and liberated Southerner, in reality he and his mother harbor similar attitudes and perspectives about those of different color, especially blacks.  The resultant generational conflict provides the opportunity for O'Connor to present her case that, even though the majority of American society may present itself as accepting minorities as equals, and appear to welcome progress with regard to race relations, for the most part they are deceiving themselves.

Racial perspectives among whites, while ever changing and improving on a legislative and judicial level, haven't really undergone a true social change since the day slavery was abolished in 1863.  In the story Everything that Rises must Converge, O'Conner challenges the reader to examine his conscience and think about existing attitudes and racial prejudices.  Julian, for instance, views himself as a liberal, having attended college and is therefore rational regarding his attitude toward African-Americans.  His attempts to force his mother to accept what she can't of have no effect on her.  She has no idea of how demeaning her attempts to reach out to blacks are and how it affects them.  The mother on the bus, whose child is offered a penny, is demeaned and degraded, yet Julian's mother does not appreciate how shallow her efforts are (O'Connor 191).  Author O'Connor stirs our subconscious and reminds us that our core values and attitudes haven't really changed.  Those of us who read what occurs on the bus, in particular, are prompted to ask ourselves how we truly feel.  Is the culture of the Old South still prevalent in today's society?  O'Connor reminds us that nothing has changed.

Julian is the symbol of the liberal ideas of the younger generations that, on the surface, seem eager and anxious to accept others as equals, but it is all somewhat of a cover up.  Julian even admits that true culture is in the mind (not actions), thus O'Connor challenges us to examine our own thoughts and conscience and in doing so reminds us that the same attitudes exist today as they did before (184).  Nothing has changed except what we say and do to assure ourselves that we are making a valiant effort to be part of a more open-minded society.  Mother represents the old order of things and Julian the supposed new, but O'Conner emphatically demonstrates that both the old and new are essentially the same.

A good example of contemporary social upheaval is the recent outburst of anger and frustration in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.  Blacks have moved from the inner city to Ferguson for over a decade, yet little has been accomplished politically or socially.  Most whites who have lived there have moved away, yet the power structure has remained the same.  According to the New York Times, "that helps explain why majority-black Ferguson has a virtually all white power structure:  a white mayor, a school board with six white members and one Hispanic, a city council with just one black member and a six percent  black police force" (Walsh 1).  

Supposedly blacks moving to the suburbs should demonstrate progress, but the whites flee.  They may work with blacks, go to school with them, and cheer them on when they play for their favorite team, but don't wish to live with them.  The black inhabitants of Ferguson fear the white power structure, especially the police, as untrustworthy.  Once an event such as the shooting of Michael Brown takes place, the frustration and distrust explodes and social conflict results.

O'Connor's use of rather interesting characters to make his point is typical of Southern Gothic literature.  The setting of most of the story's focus on the two main characters whose diversity in actions but similarity of attitude produces an obvious conflict of two generations, but with a similarity of both embracing what was the old social order with a new face, a new integrated South with the same result.  Nothing really has changed.  

Much has happened on the American landscape since freedom was granted to all slaves in 1863.  One hundred years later, our President had to send Federal troops to enforce the integration of high schools in the South.  In the story, blacks and whites travel together on the same bus.  There is no mention of who sits in front and in the rear.  The appearances undermine the reality.  Both Julian and his mother are victims of their own reliance on appearances.  They both believe that they are reaching out to the blacks on the bus, but they do so in a condescending manner.  The offering of the penny to the child may well remind the reader that society's attempts to offer compensation or reparations for the institution of slavery are received much as the mother whose child received the penny.  Julian attempts to create a dialogue with the black man in the suit in order to spite his mother, but his attempt is quite a failure, as the man simply stares at him.

How ironic it is that Julian and his mother manifest their attitudes towards blacks on a bus.  Julian attempts to put his liberalism into practice and clash with the ideals of his mother at the same time.  The crudeness of their efforts offends the black passengers with whom they interact.  Afterward, once they disembark, Julian sums up for his mother prophetically:  "That was your black double...you aren't who you think you are" (O'Connor 191).  Neither is Julian.  He reprimands his mother to live in a new world and to face the new reality; realities he thinks he has faced, but is not cognizant of the fact that he hasn't really faced anything at all.  O'Connor points out, using these characters as representative of contemporary white American society to pointedly profess that little, if anything, has changed from one generation to the next.

The symbolism of events occurring on a bus cannot be lost on the perceptive reader.  Rosa Parks' experience on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, provided the spark, and acted as the catalyst for the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955.  She, herself, admits that she did not plan to refuse to give up her seat to a white man, nor did she realize that Dr. Martin Luther King would become deeply involved and that the event would ultimately lead to the fragmentation and destruction of legal segregation in the South.  Ms. Parks has indicated she wanted to inspire young people to reach their highest potential ("Rosa" 1).

The bus is symbolic in that Julian's belief in his newfound liberalism and attitudes are laid bare and exposed. They are a creation in his mind.  Julian only pretends to be freed from bigotry, yet he is not and has no more progressed in his attitudes than that of his mother.  O'Connor's point is stark:  neither has the rest of society.  Those who continue to advocate racial superiority as well as those who believe they have turned the corner and represent belief in total equality, politically, socially, and intellectually.

We would like to imagine that great changes have taken place over the years.  Human nature, however, remains stationary and rigid and is difficult to experience much of a transformation.  If a societal realization is upon us, O'Connor isn't convinced we as a society are prepared to welcome it. 
