Do you believe O’Connor is overly harsh toward her characters? Do they appear to you as exaggerated caricatures of humanity or more like ordinary people you’ve encountered? Use specific passages from the text to back up your viewpoint.

Many critics consider O’Connor’s use of irony essential to her moral perspective. Examine how she employs irony concerning one of the moral issues presented in the story.

O’Connor wrote from a Roman Catholic viewpoint. Do you think it is necessary to be Catholic to fully grasp ‘‘Everything That Rises Must Converge’’? How do your own religious or spiritual beliefs (or the absence of them) shape your reaction to the story?

Julian’s mother bases many of her views on her background as part of the slave-owning aristocracy of the pre-Civil War South. Conduct some research on the conventions and belief systems regarding interactions between blacks and whites in the Old South. How does this context help you understand the interactions between the story’s characters?