The short story Everything That Rises Must Converge, written by Flannery O'Connor, is about Julian and his mother. They both get on a bus and when they get on the bus reality breaking events happen. Then in the end of the story Julian's mother dies. The story was written around the time of the African American Civil Rights Movement. The movement caused a great shift in people's culture. The way that people act and think towards others was changing. This change of the American culture helped O'Conner shape the text of the short story. This shaping is evident in the short story throughout the story by the character's attitude and events that happen in the short story. 

The first evidence of the change in American culture around the time of the Civil Rights Movement is the attitude of both Julian and his mother. When these two characters are introduced the reader learns that Julian does not respect or like his mother. This disrespect is shown through the want that Julian has to teach his mother a lesson about her outdated ideals. Julian also truly believes that African American and Caucasians should be equal. On the other hand, Julian's mother still thinks that Caucasians are better than African Americans. She also believes that slavery should still exist and not have been banned from the America. These two different ideals or thought show the change of the times. The change of the times affect the new generation to go against what the older generation thought was right. This causes a conflict which Julian and his mother portray in the short story and show that this conflict between generations affected how the story was being made.

The second evidence of the how the cultural context of O'Connor's time affected this story is the fight that Julian had with his mother about the African American. Julian gets on a bus with his mother and on the bus Julian decided to sit next to the African American after a woman decides to sit somewhere else. Julian does this because as it is said "he would have liked to teach her a lesson" (O'Connor 187). The word her mean Julian's mother and Julian decide that by sitting next to an African American Julian is teacher his mother a lesson. This idea again shows how in actually history some Caucasians where not comfortable with sitting next to a African American, but other Caucasians people are comfortable with sitting next to them. The Caucasians that are willingly sitting next to an African American are also looked at with great scrutiny and disappointment as the older generation of Caucasians still believe that Caucasians are the superior race. 

The next evidence of how cultural change is shaping the text is with the next event that happened in the short story. As the bus is moving further along an African American woman and her child enters the bus. When the two come and enter the bus the African American woman does not like having her son, Carver, with Julian's mother as she always tells Carver to "Come heah!" (O'Connor 190). This shows another shift of the culture of America has affected African Americans. African American now understand that they no longer have to think of themselves as inferior to a Caucasian. The African Americans can now show their pride and not be punished which is why the African American woman wanted her son away from Julian's mother. Julian describes the smile that his mother gives to the African American woman as the one "... she used when she was being particularly gracious to an inferior" (O'Connor 190). The African American woman knows that Julian's mother thinks of herself as superior to the woman and so the woman wants her son far away from Julian's mother as possible. 

The next event that happened in the story that showed how the text was shaped was when Julian's mother was going to give the child a penny. The penny was symbolic for the how the Caucasians looked at the African American. These coins were given to a lot of African Americans and they could nothing but take the coin because if they made a Caucasian mad the African American would be in very big trouble.  Then when the African American woman smacked the penny out of Julian's mother's hand this action showed the change. The woman actually got mad out in public. She had a "... face frozen with frustrated rage..." (O'Connor 191) and she smacked Julian's mother to further prove the point that African Americans are no longer beggars. This shows the change in people as African Americans are now fighting for themselves and not taking the handouts and looks given to them by the Caucasians. 

Lastly, the death of Julian's mother is the final example to the reader of the shaping of the text by the cultural changes in America is the death. The death of Julian's mother after the event with the penny shows that Julian's mother cannot handle life where she is not equal to an African American. When Julian's mother's reality was broken by the African American woman Julian's mother has a mental break down. This mental breakdown make her think that she is a kid back on her grandfather's plantation. Then after that she dies due to her not handling her blood pressure very well. The death of the mother shows that the idea that inequality cannot stay in American and that this idea is dying to make way for the new ideals. 

In conclusion Flannery O'Connor shows how the culture around him affected how the short story by using the attitude of his characters. The different attitudes of his characters showed off different parts of how people thought during O'Connor's time. Then by using the events in his short story O'Connor was able to show the changes in everyday interaction between people. These interaction where shown to be very different depending on which side of the conflict you were on at the time. Then lastly using the death of a character to show you how old ideals will just die away as they are not suited for the new world that comes with new ideals.
