Summary Of Revelation By Flannery O Connor

A

Historical context plays a big role in explaining the background of stories. In Flannery O’ Conner’s short stories “Revelation” and “Everything That Rises Must Converge”, slavery is the center of the historical context. Each story includes a main female character who is ignorant of the social changes derived from the ban on slavery. In the post-slavery short story “Everything That Rises Must Converge”, the leftover racism and discontent among both white and black people derived from slavery explain the abrupt actions of the black woman on the train towards Julian’s mother as a lack of trust towards the sincerity of white people. Gender can be added to the historical context as it is known that most white women had unpleasant attitudes toward black women due to a fear of competition. Historical context aids the understanding of the reader regarding the origin of the black woman's hatred. Without this context, the

In Flannery O’ Conner’s “Revelation”, Mrs. Turpin and Mary Grace get into an altercation. Throughout the fight, Mary Grace’s scowls provoke Mrs. Turpin, leading her to make claims about Mary Grace’s lack of poise and appearance. Mrs. Turpin described the girl’s face as being “blue with acne”. She believed that no proper girl at that young age should have possessed such a face (cite). She also made assumptions about Mary Grace’s personality, saying “it was one thing to be ugly and another to act ugly” (cite). To Mrs. Turpin such a girl would never be regarded as a lady in her eyes. When Mrs. Turpin the Mary Grace went to Wellesley College in the north, she attributed that situation to Mary Grace’s bad manners (cite). Throughout the story, Mrs. Turpin attributes the attributes of a proper lady to what she believed was her disposition. Anyone who strayed from that was an ugly and or trashy woman who was just as bad as a