Life is Short

A detailed Summary of Life is Short

In "Everything That Rises Must Converge," Flannery O'Connor uses two fictional characters, Julian and his mother, to contrast with each other on how they react to different changes that were taking place in their lives. From the exposition, the story took place when slavery was outlawed in America and when black people were allowed to ride the buses with whites. As Julian, and his mother, demonstrated in the story, the major conflict in the story was the changes in values and thoughts held by two generations of people.

In the exposition of "ETRMC," the protagonist, Julian was a college graduate selling computers while trying to land a career as a writer The antagonist, his mother, was a hard worker who sacrificed much of her well-being for her son. His mother took a reduction class at the YMCA for health reasons. This is an excellent example of foreshadowing, because by the end of the story, health was her ultimate demise. Julian's mother was quite racist towards black people. When Julian and his mother got on the bus to go to the YMCA, a black woman got on with a child. Julian notices that she was

In the story "Everything That Rises Must Converge," Flannery O'Connor shows how different the ideas and values of two generations of people can be. Even though the

The theme in the story is that you should cherish every moment with your loved ones, because they might be gone tomorrow. As far as Julian's mother goes, she should have been more open-minded about ideas and a more positive attitude, instead of thinking that "the world is in a mess everywhere." (344, 52) Julian should have spent time loving his mother instead of trying to find ways that "he could teach her a lesson." (347, 74) Julian learned a valuable lesson with his mother's death. The author is trying to tell us that even though her characters in the story are imaginary, the possibility is very real that this could happen to anyone. Hindsight, however, is 20/20.

The setting is somewhat important to the story. Julian and his mother live in a nameless town in an area that black people are moving into with the whites. It is 1965, and slavery is outlawed in America. Most people were having difficulty adjusting to having black people as equals to them. Julian's generation, however, were comprised of

"Mamma." (351, 120) In the last line of the story, it tells of Julian walking "into the world of guilt and sorrow." (351, 121) This is the denouement of the story.

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Approximate Word count = 1469
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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Life is Short

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