1500 words count

TOPIC 3: FLANNERY O'CONNOR'S "EVERYTHING THAT RISES MUST CONVERGE"

O'Connor's short story has three characters who contribute to setting and keeping the plot in motion: Julian, his mother, and little Carter's mothers. Each of these characters boards the bus with a heavy load of prejudicial "baggage": stereotypes or preconceptions about the character and intentions of the other passengers.

· Julian's stereotypes are focused on his mother – on her racism and her childishness – but also on the black people he encounters and idealizes. (Stereotypes can be positive or negative.)

· His mother's stereotypes are mostly focused on black people, and they reflect the prejudices of a lifetime, brought into focus by the civil-rights movement of the 1950s and early 1960s.

· And Carter's explosive mom? Well, let's just say she's not about to put up with any more insults – or condescension – from white racists.

Out of this volatile situation – the convergence of all these prejudices and prejudgments – arise conflict, violence, and, in the end, tragedy. Your job is to write a researched analytical essay in which you describe the ways in which conflict among these characters arises. In other words,

How do stereotypes lead to conflict in Flannery O'Connor's story.

There are a number of approaches you could take to writing about these characters:

· Focus on one of them – Julian, his mother, Carter's mother – and cast the other two in supporting roles.

· Focus on the conflict between two of them, casting the third in a supporting role.

· Focus more or less equally on the conflicts that arise among all three of them.

Whichever approach you take, the grading criteria are the same:

· 1500-1750 words;

· Coherent exploration of a single thesis as it is presented in your introduction;

· Meticulous adherence to MLA information, page, and citation formatting;[footnoteRef:1] [1: By this time, you should be thoroughly familiar with the requirements MLA formatting. Accordingly, failure to meet these requirements may result in severe reduction of your grade – to the tune of 5 points per formatting error. ]

· Citation of at least 5 credible[footnoteRef:2] sources: 1 or more from among the readings I have assigned for the class, 3 or more the fruit of your own research into the topic you have chosen to write about. [2: We will continue to discuss in class the criteria for credible sources. For the time being, you may find the following rule of thumb helpful: "dot.com bad, dot.org or dot.edu good." ]

NOTE: Your research into this topic should lead you to a handful of published writers' views on the reasons for the conflict between these characters. In other words, as we discussed when reading They Say / I Say, you should think of yourselves as entering an ongoing academic conversation about "Everything That Rises Must Converge."