Theme Of Revelation By Flannery O Connor

Flannery O’Connor was a Southern Gothic writer who grew up in Georgia in the mid 20th century. She is primarily known for her short stories, but ultimately admired for how expertly her work incorporated religious themes. Yet, despite O’Connor’s prowess as a writer, she affected by lupus at the age of 26; she struggled along for another 13 years with the disease before finally succumbing to it. Her later stories more heavily reflected her faith, most likely due to her sickness, one such story, as an example was: “Revelation,” published the year she died in 1964. The plot follows a stereotypical southern woman, Mrs. Turpin, who identifies others by their social classes and is caught off guard when a young, educated daughter can no longer ignore

Looking at the main character, Mrs. Turpin, we can see the stereotypical Southern woman. She and her husband, Claud arrive at a waiting room to treat his leg. She acts polite by offering the only seat to him and chatting with the stylish lady that she deemed most equal to her after judging and categorizing everyone in the room into their social classes. While chatting with this lady, she either ignores, silently mocks, or quickly disagrees with another, white-trash woman. O’Connor emphasizes Mrs. Turpin’s judgmental mindset when Mrs. Turpin thinks, “Ought to have got you a wash rag and some soap,” to the woman. This is an example of Mrs. Turpin fantasizing about fixing people so she can rank them into a higher social class. Throughout the encounters in the waiting room, O’Connor brings up past thoughts and imaginary conversations that Mrs. Turpin has had with Jesus. She states, “If Jesus had said to her before he made her, ‘There’s only two places available for you. You can either be a nigger or white-trash.’” Mrs. Turpin would have asked to wait but would eventually give in and ask, “‘make me a nigger… but that don’t mean a trashy one’” (181). This further emphasizes Mrs. Turpin’s judgmental behavior, especially towards the white-trash woman. Mrs. Turpin is your classic southern religious woman. She uses this character and others she develops

Turpin is stuck thinking about what happened in the waiting room, and whether the young daughter’s, Mary Grace’s, actions were justifiable. After she returned home with her husband, they went straight to bedroom and took a nap as they both had no appetite. Mrs. Turpin grew angry and frustrated, “Claud slept. She scowled at the ceiling” (195). She did not want to bother her husband with her thoughts as she believed he would see her differently, and she did not want him to see her as she does now. Mrs. Turpin saw herself in a new light after her encounter with Mary Grace and did not want anyone she cared about to see her that way too. That is why she had no problem bringing up her problem to the help, but their insincere compliments only annoyed her further. Later on she provoked God and was presented with an image of everyone from white-trash to people like herself and her husband being taken into heaven. The second half of the story reflected the transformation of Mrs. Turpin’s self perception and her judgmental behavior. She does not recognize her bigotry until Mary Grace confronts her, and she is comforted of her new self perception after God’s faith restoring image presents upon her. We do not know if Mrs. Turpin will change, but this revelation gives her the understanding she needs to have a chance