In literature, one symbol can symbolize a cultural struggle for many years. In "Everything that Rises Must Converge", we have the hat. The hat that Julian's mother wears on to the bus and the emotions that she shows towards negroes while wearing it shows a dramatic transformation of the racial equality in this country. This story takes place when Negroes and whites are riding on the bus together, and the matching hats show just how far the desegregation has come. Before this time, it was clear that there was supremacy in race, but now, the hat shows that the white woman and the black woman are not as different as you might think. More importantly, they are as close to equal as ever seen before. The reason there is equality in this little hat between the two races of women is that they have similar thoughts and similar paths. There is a reason that both of those women were on that bus when they were. Even though they are of different races, their character traits are in correlation with each other. The hat is so important because race is so important. Racial injustice is something that has affected millions of people in this country and throughout the world for hundreds of years, and this hat is just a microcosm of a huge step in the right direction. 

The hat serves as a sort of barrier in this story. It represents going from one setting and environment to another. It represents revolving from one culture to another in terms of race and racial justice. Finally, it represents what racism is, something that is still extremely impactful in this country today. The hat, however, has other functions that provide significance to the outside world and to the story. It adds a sense of the emotions felt by the white and black people during not only this time of transition, but before this time when whites had such a feeling of domination toward themselves over negroes. This emotion is not just shown by Julian's mom. Another prominent figure in the story is the woman sitting across from her on the bus. They are talking with each other and actually becoming acquaintances while they scold black people as an entire race. This woman is an obvious racist, as shown when she gets up and moves to a completely different part of the bus when a Negro sits next to her. This scene adds a mental sense of how bad it really once was, and despite that this hat is a sign of equality, things were not all the way back to normal even then. We would also be naive to say that it is even all the way back to normal today. The hat sums up what this country has been about, is about, and will continue to be about. At the forefront of our minds every day at some point is race. We think about it every day, sometimes talk about it, and if we do neither of those things, we hear people in poverty in streets or people of authority on television address it at some point. There was a time where slavery was prevalent; a time where there was a changing of the guard and a transition out of the slavery period, which the hat highlights in this story; and where we stand today at the point that an amazing amount of racism has been lost by many white folks. 

The mother's worldview goes completely from one end of the spectrum to the other. In the very early stages of the story, Julian's mother expresses her displeasure for wearing the hat. She says, "Maybe I shouldn't have paid that for it. No, I shouldn't have. I'll take it off and return it tomorrow. I shouldn't have bought it." (O'Connor 235) To me, this is more than just her not wanting to wear the hat. It is about her displeasure of what the hat shows, what the hat means, and what the true significance of the hat is. She is afraid of the outside world and what wearing that hat will mean for her in the future. She also drops another line that shows her racial inequality, and that is "They were better off when they were" (O'Connor 243) when referring to when Julian said, "There are no more slaves." (O'Connor 243)  This here shows early her extreme displeasure for blacks and their place in society. When on the bus, however, this changes toward the end of the ride when Julian's mother "smiled at the woman." (O'Connor 244) She starts to develop some sort of affection for her, and though it doesn't explicitly say it, the hat is what gradually starts to revolve her beliefs. It makes her realize that there is some good that blacks can bring to this world beside just being white peoples' slaves. It is truly something to admire because this one little object that they both happened to buy in probably the same store can make a woman realize how equal two different races are, despite more than one hundred years of history that told her otherwise. 

The hat, once again, is the ultimate symbol of equality in this story. It brings together a very much strained relationship with her son at the beginning and for most stages of the story, makes her realize that people who are of different skin colors can be and in most cases are more alike than she could ever imagine, and gives her and her son a sense of how beautiful racial equality can be. Beside the fact that it has an impact on just one mother and son, it also is a testament to how far this country has come. While racial equality is of course still not at the stage it could be, the hat in this story shows one thing, and that is potential. It shows potential for love between people who aren't as different as they may think or say. It shows that the color of your skin doesn't define who you are as a person. Finally, it shows that there is a chance for prosperity. 

