Everything That Rises Must Converge

Everything That Rises Must Converge Summary | Detailed Summary

This short story tells place in the recently desegregated South, where "enlightened" whites are condescending, and blacks resent the efforts of well-meaning whites. The story opens with Julian, a young man out of college, accompanying his mother on the bus. His mother, who is required to take a weight reduction class for her health, will not take the bus by herself due to its desegregation. She reminds him how much she does for him, that the class is for health and is free; Julian grudgingly prefers not to think of what she does for him.

Julian's mother is examining herself in her new hat at the mirror, trying to decide whether she should have spent the $7.50 for it or if she should return it. The hat was purple and green; Julian describes it as "hideous." It was garish and looked like a cushion with the stuffing coming out of it. He also thought that it was striking and pathetic; his mother's small pleasures depressed him.

He notes the oddity in the fact that he is now taking his mother to town, after she had struggled through the hardship of being a widow, raising him alone, and now even supports him as he struggles to get on his feet.

They walk through their neighborhood, which Julian describes as having been fashionable forty years ago. His mother notes that at least since she spent a little bit more on the hat, she will not see it on everyone else's head. Julian, though he does not believe it, tells his mother that some day he will make money and then she can have whatever hats she likes. In his mind, he is thinking that the first thing they would do is move to a neighborhood where the houses are further apart. His mother reminds him that he has only been out of college for a year, and that Rome was not built in a day.

Julian notes to himself that he could have dealt with his mother better if she were selfish, or drank and screamed at him. Noticing his down, depressed expression, his mother tells him she is going back to take off the hat and will return it, as she could use the money to pay the gas bill. Julian grips her arm and tells her that she is not going to return the hat—to shut up and enjoy it. His mother comments that with the state the world is in, with everything turned on its head, that it is a wonder they can enjoy anything.

As she did every week, Julian's mother notes how most of the people in her class are not their kind of people. She says that she can be gracious though, because she knows who she is. Julian tells her that the people do not give a damn for her graciousness, that knowing who you are is good for one generation only, and that she did not have the slightest idea who she was now. His mother tells him that she certainly does know who she is, and if Julian does not know who he is, she is ashamed of him. She reminds him that his great-grandfather was a state governor, his grandfather was a prosperous landowner, and his grandmother was a God high. He reminds her where they are now, sweeping his hand to indicate the dingy neighborhood. She tells him that his great-grandfather had a plantation and two hundred slaves, to which Julian responds that there are no more slaves. His mother believes that they were better off when they were slaves. She says that she feels the worst for those who are mixed, as they have mixed feelings. Julian says that he has mixed feelings as well.

Julian's mother begins to reminisce about going to her grandfather's house as a young girl. This house had been allowed to decay and deteriorate and ultimately was sold by the family. Part of it had been torn down, and Negroes now lived in it. His mother notes that his relatives, despite their reduced circumstances, never forgot who they were. Julian comments matter-of-factly that the mansion certainly did not remind them. He thinks of the house with bitterness, noting to himself that he had dreams about it, and would have been the one to appreciate it in its former state before its deterioration. When his mother starts talking about her old "darky nurse" and how much she cared for her and her other "colored friends," Julian attempts to quiet her, noting to himself that when he rides the bus alone he deliberately sits next to blacks as "reparation as it were for his mother's sins."

At the bus stop, Julian watches his mother with disgust, as she stands "holding herself very erect under the preposterous hat, wearing it as a banner of her imaginary dignity." Out of a spiteful desire to break her spirit, he removes his tie. She tells him that he looks like a thug and is deliberately trying to embarrass her. He tells her that he knows his place even if she does not. She tells him to go home if he cannot do this one thing for her. Julian puts his tie back on, commenting sarcastically that he has been returned to his class, and that culture is all in the mind. His mother says that it is in the heart and how you do things because of who you are. Julian tells her that no one cares who she is; his mother responds that she cares who she is.

Julian's mother gets on the bus with a smile on her face, as if she is entering a drawing room where everyone is waiting for her. She starts a conversation about the weather with her fellow bus passengers. She tells them that Julian wants to be a writer, but is selling typewriters until he gets on his feet. Julian hides in a "mental bubble" behind his newspaper.

The narrator gives insight into Julian's thoughts. He believes that his mother lives in a fantasy world of her own creation, and comments that the sacrifices she made were necessary after her lack of foresight made them essential. She struggled to live as her ancestry dictated she should, despite lack of resources. His mother feels that she had "won" because she had gotten his teeth straightened by foregoing getting her own filed, and because Julian had graduated from college, and he was good-looking, intelligent and had a future ahead of him. Julian feels that he is too intelligent to be a success and that he had no future. Julian feels that it was ironic that he turned out so well despite being raised by her. He notes that despite going to a third rate college, he obtained a good education due to his own diligence, and despite her small mind, he had developed a large one. Julian feels that he is not dominated by his mother, and that he is not blinded by his love for her and thus could see her objectively for what she was.

When a well-dressed Negro man with a briefcase gets on the bus, his mother whispers to him that that was why she would not ride the bus alone. A female passenger who the Negro sat down next to deliberately gets up and changes seats. Julian's mother looks on approvingly. Julian moved to sit next to the man, and his mother's face turns red. Spitefully, Julian desires to engage the man in conversation, but he is absorbed in his newspaper. He asks the Negro for a light, then realizes he had given up smoking a month earlier, plus there is a no smoking sign. Julian returns the matches, embarrassed, and the man gives him a disgusted look. Julian considers refusing getting off the bus at his mother's stop, and making her continue onto her class by herself. He decides he will decide when the time comes.

Julian imagines to himself further ways he could spite his mother by befriending Negroes. He thinks about upsetting her, but not driving her to a stroke, to which she was prone. He thinks about calling for a Negro doctor when she was sick, or bringing home a Negro girlfriend. However, he admits to himself that despite his efforts, he has not yet had much luck in making Negro friends.

At the next stop, a Negro woman gets on with a son about four years old. Julian hopes the woman, who was quite large, would sit down next to his mother. However, she sits down next to him, and the boy sat down next to his mother. Julian is disappointed, as his mother found Negro children to be cute. Julian chuckles to himself, thinking that the two women had switched sons.

Suddenly, Julian realizes that the woman is wearing the same exact hat as his mother is wearing. Julian views this as a just punishment and begins to chuckle. He is disappointed that his mother finds it amusing as well, and in his mind, the lesson "rolled over her like rain." His mother comments on how cute the boy was and that he seems to like her, in a voice that Julian describes as a gracious one that she uses to speak to her inferiors. The woman yanks the boy off the seat and between her and Julian. His mother tries to play peek-a-boo from across the bus, but the woman spanks his hand down and tells him to stop.

The woman and her child, and Julian and his mother, all get off at the same stop. His mother reaches in her pocketbook, saying that she wants to give the boy a nickel. Julian implores her not to do it. She can only find a penny, but it looks like a new one. When his mother attempts to hand it to the boy, the woman explodes with rage. She hits Julian's mother with her pocketbook, knocking her to the ground. Julian tells her that she got what she deserved and to get up. His mother remains on the ground. He asks what she would tell someone who asks her why she is sitting on the sidewalk, as a man approaches. She takes Julian's hand and gets up. She starts in the opposite direction of her class. Julian asks her where she was going, and she says home. He wonders why they are walking. Julian then begins to lecture her, telling her that he hopes that she has learned her lesson. He tells her that colored people would no longer take her condescending pennies, that the black woman is her double and that the hat looks better on the black woman. Julian tells her the old world is gone, that she does not know her place, and that her graciousness and manners do not mean a damn. He tells her to buck up and face reality, that it would not kill her.

His mother begins breathing heavily and looks at him with a face that he has never seen before. She tells him to get his dead grandfather or her old nurse Caroline to come and get her. She then falls to the pavement. Her face is distorted, one eye appeared unmoored, and the other looks at him blankly and then closes. Julian calls for help and then begins running, "the tide of darkness seemed to sweep him back to her, postponing from moment to moment his entry into the world of guilt and sorrow."