Theme Of Revelation By Flannery O Connor

A question one might ask after hearing any story is, “What is the point?” In other words, what is the morale or theme of the story? Flannery O’Connor’s short story, which is called “Revelation,” has an intriguing and complex theme. The theme is that anyone who considers himself or herself a righteous person, but does not treat all people with equal value, must change his or her actions, or he or she is not truly righteous at all. This theme is evident through careful examination of the plot, characters, setting, and even the author herself. Plus, a deeper understanding of O’Connor’s story provides a deeper understanding of O’Connor herself. The characters in “Revelation” reveal that Mrs. Turpin is not the person of good disposition that she

When the story begins, Mrs. Turpin is oblivious to the error of her ways. Mary Grace is the catalyst that affects change in Mrs. Turpin simply by removing her ignorance. The first thing that Mary Grace says after the attack is, “‘Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog’” (O’Connor 389). She reverses Mrs. Turpin’s perspective; Mrs. Turpin thought she was from Heaven, but Mary Grace accuses her of being from Hell (O’Connor 383, 389). There is irony here, too, because Mary Grace says, “wart hog,” and earlier in the story Mrs. Turpin compares the sick little boy to her pigs (O’Connor 385). Not only does Mary Grace tell Mrs. Turpin that she is not as important as she thinks, but also that she is no better than the people she despises. In the aftermath, Mrs. Turpin is angrily hosing down her precious hogs and envisioning a parade of people dancing into Heaven. She imagines all kinds of people entering the gates, and the people like her are “marching behind the others with great dignity, accountable . . . for good order and common sense and respectable behavior. . .. Yet she could see . . . that even their virtues were being burned away” (O’Connor 394). Despite the separation between peoples in her vision, and despite her supposedly superior morals, she sees that every one of them is receiving the same reward: entrance to

O’Connor proudly admits to being a devout Catholic and having a “modern” conscience that causes her to struggle with “contemporary” issues (396). Even to this day, “Revelation” could be considered a controversial story, which means O’Connor must not have cared about being popular, nor to conform and be like everyone else. Josephine Hendin spoke to a woman who witnessed O’Connor at a wedding shower. According to the witness, O’Connor was standing apart from the other women and frowning. Hendin says, “Neither the devil nor her mother could make her say yes to this fiercely gracious female society, but Flannery O’Connor could not say no even in a whisper” (398). O’Connor simply wanted to be who she was unapologetically, but not with a careless disregard for others. This also shows that she truly valued everyone—not just the people she made Mrs. Turpin discriminate against, but also the people who are like Mrs. Turpin. Truly, O’Connor is the righteous woman in this story, not Mrs.