Racism by the Time "Everything Research Proposal

As Robillard points out, "Julian's cynicism shuts him off from any human association," (143). He has lost his family home due to the changes taking place in Southern society. The economic infrastructure that was supported by slavery has crumbled. Julian notes, "He never spoke of it without contempt or thought of it without longing. He had seen it once when he was a child before it had been sold." Moreover, the narrator mentions that African-Americans lived in his old family home now. Julian seems to be experiencing a cognitive dissonance that epitomizes Southern culture during integration.

Using an unreliable narrator enhances cognitive dissonance and irony. Aull also notes that Julian might be deceiving himself. In that case, the third-person omniscient narrator would only be echoing Julian's mind games. Ultimately, "Everything that Rises Must Converge" is a tragedy.The story needs its unreliable narrator to flush out the dissonance in Southern culture, especially during the Civil Rights movement. The emerging social values challenge the status quo, leading to generation gaps and intergenerational conflicts. Those conflicts can tear apart families every bit as much as racism can.

Works Cited

"Analysis." Retrieved May 3, 2009 from http://swc2.hccs.cc.tx.us/htmls/rowhtml/foc/analysis.html

Beck-Watt, Sebastian. "Literary analysis: Racial prejudice in Everything That Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O'Connor." Helium. Retrieved May 3, 2009 from http://www.helium.com/items/914481-literary-analysis-racial-prejudice-in-everything-rises-converge-flannery

O'Connor, Flannery. "Everything that Rises Must Converge."

Rath, Sura Prasad and Shaw, Mary Neff. Flannery O'Connor. University of Georgia Press, 1996

Robillard, Douglas. The Critical Response to Flannery O'Connor. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004.....