Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee both demonstrate multiple themes and lessons for readers to learn. The lessons within these stories give the plot a deeper meaning and give readers food for thought while they are experiencing the story. Both of the stories are similar in that they have a shared theme, which is the underlying racism present in both plots. Flannery O’Connor demonstrates a theme that shows that an appearance is not always trustworthy. Julian and his mother come from a wealthy past but are no longer in such financial security. Both of them use different methods to appear as they are higher up in society, when in reality they are pretty low on the totem pole. Julian’s mother uses her appearance and her actions to raise her spot in society by wearing the hat as well as how she acts on the bus towards people who are “lower” than her. She acts as if these make her more elite, especially when it comes to be compared to Black people. She sees a Black woman …show more content…
This comes from the idea that one does not completely understand what another is going through until they “walk in their shoes”. Atticus preaches this idea to Jem and Scout often throughout the story. For example, Mrs. Dubose is the grumpy old neighbor that Jem has to go to read to daily. When he complains to Atticus that she is a hateful woman, he urges the children to take a look at life through her eyes. This helped the children understand that she is an old woman coming with a different viewpoint on life than younger generations. Later, Mrs. Dubose dies and Atticus informs the children that she was struggling with a drug addiction and the children visiting and reading to her was helping her get sober. This was the cause for her being so rude all the time, which the children would have never known looking at her life from the