In "Everything that arises must converge" Flannery O'Connor compares the robustness of different methods of maintaining identity. The two identity schemas compared are those of Julian, the highly individualistic and cerebral main character, and his mother, a patronizing Southern woman clinging to her declining social status. By focusing on the ongoing clash between these characters' styles of self-identification, O'Connor shows that they are mutually destructive to each other, but that Julian's is more robust because it is built on an internal self-concept rather than on a need for reference. external concepts such as class and family history. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Julian's mother reveals her methods of identity construction by constantly orienting herself to the culture and history around her, which she takes completely for granted. He blindly assumes racial stereotypes that he deems appropriate to his perceived place in society, even going so far as to suggest that the old ways of slavery were a preferable state to current racial realities. This shows that its identity is linked to the culture of the "old South" and therefore it is unable to adequately respond to the change in this culture. Her comments to Julian reflect her concern for the past, in her talk of "going to Grandpa when [she] was a little girl" and the glory of the Godhigh family. Julian's critical thoughts are directly antagonistic to Julian's self-concept, and his memories that the Godhigh mansion is now inhabited by "niggers" and that their neighborhood's reputation has long since faded give the reader an idea of ​​the extent in which his mother's identity is deluded and obsolete. His unspoken comments about his gaudy hat, a symbol of his illusory concept of self-importance, work the same way. Therefore, when Julian's mother sees the same hat on a black woman, O'Connor uses the moment as a trigger point for Julian to launch an attack on his mother's self-concept in order to bring her down a notch by instead using reality as a reference. of the constructs of culture and family history. This attack comes in the form of him speaking his mind and telling her bluntly, “you are not who you think you are.” This intuition literally destroys her, because it completely demolishes her self-concept by invalidating the constructs on which it is based. O'Connor allows Julian to win in the final battle to demonstrate that his view that "true culture is in the mind" results in a more resilient self-concept. Julian realizes that it is despite his upbringing, his race, his heritage, and his mother that he is who he is, and not because of them. His independent self-concept allows him to evaluate reality without being blinded by tradition and cultural assumptions, and therefore he does not have the difficulty of accommodating the social change his mother faces into his identity. However, although Julian's self-concept is robust enough to survive the story's final climactic confrontation, he is not free from influences from his mother's opposing means of identity formation. Even before the final battle he feels a deeply rooted sense of guilt for having felt so condescending towards his mother, for whom "everything that gave her pleasure was little and depressed him". This depression he feels stems from the guilt he feels every time he pulls a rug out of his mother's sense of self by criticizing the cultural standards with which she identifies. So, at the end of the story, when he pulls out.