Flannery O’Connor, in the fictional short story, “Everything That Rises Must Converge” (1961), argues that self-righteousness blinds an individual to the ways they perpetuate the very prejudices they claim to subvert. O’Connor supports her assertion by utilizing martyr diction, describing Julian’s reaction to his mother’s attachment to the olden ways, with the latter “persist[ing] in [her] thinking” that people of color were inferior. In response, Julian feels “sacrificed to her pleasure” numbly waiting “for the arrows to begin piercing him,” a religious allusion to Saint Sebastian that imbues his words with a selfless, noble quality (15). However, this sacrificial imagery is juxtaposed with Julian’s glaring pride: preening in his moral highground, Julian ironically derives “a certain satisfaction to see injustice in daily operation” as validation of his worldview and, by extension, an opportunity to weaponize his progressivism against those he considers to be morally inferior (20). Moreover, through such descriptions of hypocrisy, O’Connor implies that self-righteous modern liberalism is equally corrosive compared to traditional bigotry. Ultimately, O’Connor appeals to her white liberal audience, who may mistake superficial progressivism for genuine compassion, in order to shed light on persisting racial tensions despite purported social reform.