Everything That Rises Must Converge is a collection of short stories

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 written by Flannery O'Connor

Flannery O'Connor

Mary Flannery O'Connor was an American novelist, short-story writer and essayist. An important voice in American literature, O'Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries...

 during her final illness. The title of the collection and of the short story of the same name is taken from a passage from the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of both Piltdown Man and Peking Man. Teilhard conceived the idea of the Omega Point and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of Noosphere...

. The collection was published posthumously in 1965. It includes an introduction by Robert Fitzgerald

Robert Fitzgerald

Robert Stuart Fitzgerald was a poet, critic and translator whose renderings of the Greek classics "became standard works for a generation of scholars and students." He was best known as a translator of ancient Greek and Latin...

, and nine stories.

Stories

• "Everything That Rises Must Converge"
• "Greenleaf
  Greenleaf (short story)
  "Greenleaf" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was written in 1956 and published in 1965 in her short story collection Everything That Rises Must Converge. O'Connor finished the collection during her final battle with lupus. She died in 1964, just before her final book was published...
  
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• "A View of the Woods
  A View of the Woods
  "A View of the Woods" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was completed in the fall of 1956 and was first published in the Fall 1957 issue of Partisan Review. It was later republished in The Best American Short Stories of 1958, and again in 1965, in O'Connor's short story collection,...
  
  "
• "The Enduring Chill
  The Enduring Chill
  "The Enduring Chill" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was written in 1958 and published in 1965 in her short story collection Everything That Rises Must Converge. After suffering for many years, O'Connor died of lupus at the age of 39...
  
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• "The Comforts of Home
  The Comforts of Home
  "The Comforts of Home" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was written in 1960 and published in 1965 in her short story collection Everything That Rises Must Converge. A devout Roman Catholic, O'Connor often used religious themes in her work....
  
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• "The Lame Shall Enter First
  The Lame Shall Enter First
  "The Lame Shall Enter First" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was published in 1965 in her short story collection Everything That Rises Must Converge. O'Connor finished the collection during her final battle with lupus. She died in 1964, just before her final book was published...
  
  "
• "Revelation
  Revelation (short story)
  "Revelation" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was published in 1965 in her short story collection Everything That Rises Must Converge. O'Connor finished the collection during her final battle with lupus. She died in 1964, just before her final book was published...
  
  "
• "Parker's Back
  Parker's Back
  "Parker's Back" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was published in 1965 in her short story collection Everything That Rises Must Converge. O'Connor finished the collection during her final battle with lupus. She died in 1964, just before her final book was published...
  
  "
• "Judgment Day
  Judgement Day (short story)
  "Judgement Day" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was published in 1965 in her short story collection Everything That Rises Must Converge. O'Connor finished the collection during her final battle with lupus. She died in 1964, just before her final book was published. A devout Roman...
  
  "

Everything That Rises Must Converge

In the story after which the work is titled, human weaknesses are exposed and important moral questions are explored through everyday situations. Though given a state of illness from symptoms of lupus, an arising amount of critique claiming her works to be "without fundamentals" and based on "reclusive" moral views, she indeed was "very much an insider." In the story, Julian, an arrogant young man takes a fateful bus trip with his mother. The mother doesn’t like to ride the recently racially integrated bus alone because of the teachings of her parents. The mother is stuck in the mindset she grew up with, and Julian doesn't understand this. Their relationship shows tensions when a black mother and son enter the bus. Through irony, the blindness and ignorance of the characters are exposed. This story can be read in terms of (a) racial tensions in a newly integrated American climate, (b) generational changes in cultural perspectives, or (c) a vignette of a moment before tragedy strikes. In the case of reading (a) and (b), these could be attributed to O'Connor's own life in Georgia. The title Everything That Rises Must Converge refers to a work by the French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of both Piltdown Man and Peking Man. Teilhard conceived the idea of the Omega Point and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of Noosphere...

titled the "Omega Point": "Remain true to yourself, but move ever upward toward greater consciousness and greater love! At the summit you will find yourselves united with all those who, from every direction, have made the same ascent. For everything that rises must converge."