Eudora Welty's "Where is the Voice Coming From?" and Flannery O'Connor's "Everything that Rises Must Converge" are two fairly different stories in many ways including writing style, point of view, and morality. O’Connor’s work is written as many narratives are, and has a fairly normal writing style. The point of view is third person, which allows the reader to get inside Julian’s head without being totally submerged in his view. You can still get a feeling for the whole situation that occurs and have to opportunity to connect with each character. Welty’s work seems to be much more broken and vague in writing style. His point of view is that of first person.

Morality and sin in both stories is a very interesting thing to compare. It seems in one story; the main character had no morals. He chose to murder a black man just because he was on TV representing his views on equal rights. While, in contrast, the main character in the other story was very much for equal rights. He was very upset with his mother for having out-dated views on Africans and wanted to teach her a lesson because it bothered him so much. It’s interesting, however, that the man who murdered did not feel it was a sin. He seemed to be very pleased with himself for what he had done. Julian’s mother also did not think she was sinning for thinking less of the black race and treating them so. She thought Julian was sinning for acting the way he did with Blacks. Julian did however think she was wrong, but didn’t really show his religious views on sin. He does say, “in spite of her foolish views, he was free of prejudice and unafraid to face facts.” Julian had made a conscious decision to not be blinded by the hatred in society and his mother, and to make his own mind up as to his thoughts and beliefs.

Besides just the differences in thoughts on slavery and sin, the narratives seem to be a kind of opposite, in that one mans kills a black man, and a black woman kills the other man’s mother. I also find it interesting that a man killed a man, and a woman, a woman. It’s almost that one stories brutality causes the others. A man kills a black man and causes outrage in that community at the victim’s murder then causes people to take matters into their own hands and inflict pain upon the white race. The two stories represent the never-ending cycle of aggression and illegal acts, and the hopelessness it can cause in those who are working toward a greater good, as in the case of Julian.

This comparison has a great deal to do with politics. The man who was killed was most likely in politics because he was on TV speaking on equal rights. The whole issue of slaves, who gets to ride the bus, and where people have to sit, are all things governed by the law. Politics seem to be a strong link between the two narratives.

Morgan McMahn