Postmodernists believe that truth is relative and up to each individual to determine for themselves. Most believe nationalism builds walls, makes enemies, and destroys the planet, while capitalism creates a “dog eat dog” society. They trust that religion causes tensions and division among people. Also, that other people’s truth are indistinguishable from error (postmodern). Therefore no one has the right to define truth or impose their idea of morals. These beliefs stem from an admiration that reality is not mirrored by human understanding, but rather, is constructed as the mind tries to understand its own personal reality. Authors such as Raymond Craver, Tim O’Brien, Thomas Pynchon, and Flannery O’Connor showed these postmodernist values…show more content… Her reputation is even more striking in being based on a generally small number of fictional works. She finished four main pieces before her death from lupus, an incurable autoimmune disease, which killed her father years prior (Baldwin).
By the 1950s, the plantation system in the Southern America had been completely dismantled, and cities swelled with a surplus of job seekers from rural areas. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed which outlawed segregation everywhere in America. “Everything That Rises Must Converge” was written in 1961 amid the American civil rights movement. The short story portrays the ideas of different generations, and the transforming social morals illustrate the racial desegregation in the South. This story focuses on pressures that emerged after…show more content… He’s an aspiring journalist and believes his mother is stuck in the old world of segregation. He judges his mother for her racist opinions, believing that she lives in a segregated fantasy world. So one day, Julian brings her on a bus ride. Public transportation yielded a lot of racial tension due to the Rosa Parks innocent in 1955. On the bus Julian’s mother meets Craver, an African American boy who was accompanied by his mother. Julian’s mom tries to be kind and give the boy a shiny penny, but Craver’s mother gets upset because “He don’t take nobody pennies”(O’Connor). Craver’s mother proceeds to hit Julian’s mom, who happened to be wearing the same hat as her, with a purse. Julian then picks his mother up and says, “Don’t think that was just an uppity Negro woman,” he said. “That was the whole colored race, which will no longer take your condescending pennies. That was your black double” (O’Connor) Julian’s mother ends up having a stroke and dying on the side walk. Craver mom’s anger can represent African American’s frustration towards the oppression and mistreatment by Caucasians in America. She entered the bus ready to counter-act anyone’s harsh criticism. The hats represent how they were morally the same people; Julian’s mom is racist and Craver’s mother assaulted
