Everything that rises must converge

In Flannery O'Connor's "Everything that rises must converge," the title can be dissected to pertain to different elements of the story. The "everything that rises," is Julian's mother's blood pressure. It also talks about the rising change in society during this time. African Americans are gaining equal rights and freedoms as whites, and are rising up from the struggle they were forced into. When Julian's prejudice mother, who is unaware of the change in society, tries to give a little african american boy a penny, the boy's mother strikes her with her handbag. The woman's pride converges with julian's mother's blood pressure, which in the end kills her. The title is talking about the rise and convergence of black and white equality, as well as the rising of the blood pressure and the convergence with a stressful situation of a sudden realization, that the world is not how she thought it was, and things are in fact changing.