Multiple Themes In Revelation By Flannery O Connor

The Vision As stated by John Green, “Just remember that sometimes, the way you think about a person isn’t the way they actually are”. In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “Revelation” multiple themes can be identified; not judging others and being humble are two clear messages that one can understand. O’Connor is known as the queen of southern gothic literature. Flannery’s stories are based on controversial topics such as racism, and her religion plays a major role in her works. The story is full of irony and hate. In this narrative, the story begins with Mrs. Turpin and her husband walking into a waiting room at a doctor’s office. She routinely sizes up the other people sitting in the room and ultimately decides that she is of the highest

The main character, Mrs. Turpin is racist and believes that she is better than many people. Throughout the story she constantly judges others in her head but never actually says the negative comments. While sitting in the waiting room, she describes each of the individuals as being ugly, white-trash, and a negro. Mrs. Turpin notices that an old woman in the room is wearing a dress that has the same design as a sack of their chicken feed, which is an example of her judging others. There is also a dirty little boy in the waiting room with his mother, who Mrs. Turpin describes as white-trash and having snuff stained on her lips. Mrs. Turpin’s judgmental side is seen in the quote, “Worse than niggers any day, Mrs. Turpin thought” (O’Connor 5). Stereotyping is another way that Mrs. Turpin judges people. When she analyzes a person’s appearance, she notices people’s feet, and she sees that, “… the white-trashy mother had on what appeared to be bedroom slippers, black straw with gold braid threaded through them- exactly what you would have expected her to have on” (O’Connor 5). There is one person in the waiting room who sees past Mrs. Turpin’s facade, which is the ugly girl Mary Grace. As the story progresses, she can no longer tolerate Mrs. Turpin’s actions so she throws her book at her and chokes her. The book that Mrs. Turpin was hit with is labeled “Human Development”, which is ironic because that is

Flannery uses the quote, “’Why me?’ she rumbled. ‘It’s no trash around here, black or white, that I haven’t given to. And break my back to the bone every day working. And do for the church’” to show that Mrs. Turpin does not do good deeds because she is nice (O’Connor 32). She does the deeds for recognition. She wants people to see that she does nice things so they will like her.
After the incident, Mrs. Turpin is upset with Mary’s comment. She goes out to the pig pen to talk to God when, “A final surge of fury shook her and she roared, ‘Who do you think you are?’’ (O’Connor 32). She speaks as if she is even above God. While still talking to God, Mrs. Turpin sees a vision of people walking on a bridge from earth to heaven. She sees white-trash people clean for the first time, niggers wearing white robes, and crazy people happily making their way toward heaven in front of her and people like her. The quote, “Yet she could see by their shocked and altered faces even their virtues were being burned away” shows that her class think they should be ahead of the others (O’Connor 35). After seeing the vision, Mrs. Turpin’s views do not change, and she still believes that her kind are superior and more