The world view of Flannery O'Connor is profoundly religious, and from the facts of her life it is no great leap of insight to note that her religious view is profoundly Catholic. A strong concept of the consequences of sin and the inescapability of accountability for it permeates "Everything That Rises Must Converge." To fail to take the divine seriously is the deepest of sins, and retribution may strike in any form because of that sin. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that the sin is in a failure of convergence with what is ultimate about life, and that not addressing this problem of life carries the most terrible of consequences. On this view, since all of human life is the province of God, God's justice may strike in any form and certainly not at human beings' convenience. Thus Julian, in "Everything That Rises Must Converge," is deprived of the mother he thinks he hates and is obliged in a sudden moment to prepare to face life without her. The suspense and consequence to Julian, which are absolute and irrevocable, are held until the final line of the story.
The action of "Everything" is simple and straightforward. In the early 1960s in the South, an adult young man, Julian, who has better things to do accompanies his mother on a bus ride to her exercise class. As they leave the bus, the mother makes an unwelcome, patronizing fuss over a young black boy who is with his own mother. When the black boy's mother responds angrily and stalks off, Julian is amused and his mother is abashed, especially when everyone notices that his mother and the black woman are wearing precisely the same hat. But things change quickly, as the momentary shock degenerates for Julian's mother into a stroke. Julian witnesses his mother's death in increasing fear. We leave him huddled over her body on the sidewalk.
If the events of the story are simple, very much a small moment out of life and time, the character psychology is dense, complex, and ...