A Critical Analysis of "Revelation" by Flannery O'Connor
Flannery O'Connor's background influenced her to write the short story "
Revelation." One important influence on the story is her Southern upbringing.
During her lifetime, Southerners were very prejudiced towards people of other races and lifestyles. They believed that people who were less fortunate were inferior to them; therefore, people were labeled as different things and placed into different social classes. The South provided O'Connor with the images she needed for her characters. Similarly, this can easily be identified in her short story "Revelation." The characters in the story are identified by physical characteristics and some are even identified with racial terms.…show more content… Turpin does not change; therefore, she is a static character. O'Connor's characters are victimized and are images of lower intelligence. Mrs. Turpin, however, does appear to be of average intelligence. Her behavior in the story mirrors the Southern image given to her by O'Connor. In the beginning of "Revelation," Mrs. Turpin is a polite and outgoing individual, and these are characteristics that remain with her. In addition to consistent behavior, Mrs. Turpin is convincing because she is mainly motivated by her insecurity. Her motivation for appearing at the doctor's office is clearly because her husband is injured. She also feels a need to observe the other patients so she can draw conclusions as to why they are there. Mrs. Turpin is a friendly and curious woman which explains her continuous conversations with anyone who will listen. Even though she notices the hatred given off by the teenage girl, she continues to act ignorant of it.
A possible motivation for her continued talking could be that she is deterring from a confrontation. Another characteristic of Mrs. Turpin is her plausibility. In this story, she is very plausible because her personality and characteristics model those of a lifelike person. She is curious and observant just like everyone else and she also enjoys a friendly conversation. O'Connor makes Mrs. Turpin an average Southern citizen with an average Southern attitude.
With these characteristics given to her,
