rstand the world he lived in, with free blacks and integrated systems, even if she couldn't accept it for herself "If you will never learn where you are, you can at least learn where I am." Julian's mother must ride the public transportation like everyone else, yet she feels she is above them. Her distaste and fear since integration has inconvenienced Julian and he wants to show her his message, that she is not better than these people, by sitting with and talking to blacks. Julian tries to get his mother to see the world differently because the condescending, what she sees as gracious, way she treats people, especially black people, is really unacceptable. Not only is it unacceptable but it could cause serious trouble and harm as demonstrated near that end of the story with the black woman and her child. Of course the black woman reacted as she did, after years and years of persecution she doesn't need to take it anymore. Julian's mother didn't realize this, she thought she was being "gracious." The stroke Julian's mother receives at the end is a direct result of her failure to adapt to her current setting. "A Pair of Tickets" and "Everything That Rises Must Converge" are good examples of how setting explores place, heritage, and ethnic identity to give us a better understanding of the characters. In "A Pair of Tickets" Jing-Mei Woo discovers for herself what makes her Chinese and the setting played an important role in helping us understand how she came to this discovery. The setting in "Everything That Rises Must Converge" gave us a good understanding of why the characters acted as they did to the situations presented. The setting in both of these stories greatly contributed to the understanding the characters better and in general the whole story. ...
