Flannery O Connor's Revelation Character Analysis

There is Only Two Places Available for You “‘What if Jesus had said, “All right, you can be white-trash or a nigger or ugly!’” How would you react? Would you verbalize a response or think it only in your head? If you say it out loud, are you a worse person than if you only think it? Are you an abominable person for doing either? In “Revelation,” by Flannery O’ Connor, protagonist Mrs.Turpin, finds herself realizing that one may not always understand its own spiritual nature. She does this waiting in a doctor’s waiting room where after making many racial and classist comments, the righteous Mrs. Turpin, is verbally and physically accosted by the ugly girl, Mary Grace. After feeling the weight of the assault, Mrs. Turpin attempts to find compassion from the black workers on her farm. When she realizes that their responses are perfidious, she visits her pig parlor where she has a religious experience. It is here the reader can conclude Mrs. Turpin has been saved from God after acknowledging her transgressions. O’ Connor argues, it is difficult to be a saint, using Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. The author uses Ethos to show her credibility, trustworthiness, and authority in “Revelation.”

Many people in Georgia were a part of a movement that believed in full civil rights and racial equality. They were opposed by white supremacists who believed in segregation, discrimination, and violence. O’conner had a Catholic upbringing in Georgia giving her deep spiritual convictions. “This means that for me the meaning of life is centered in our Redemption by Christ and what I see in the world I see in its relation to that” (Meyer 366). Using her religious upbringing in the rural south and first-hand accounts of racism during civil rights movement, Flannery O’Connor proves to be a credible source