Another message could be “don’t judge a book by its cover”. Mary Grace used to judge Mrs. Turpin all the time. Mrs. Turpin wasn’t the skinniest woman that people expected her to be. “Ruby was a fat, egotistical woman. She goes around the room judging each person. If anyone does not meet her standards, they should be taken by train to a gas chamber.” It shouldn’t matter what’s on the outside of someone all that matters are what’s on the inside. Nobody really looked at what her personal values or personality, they only focused on that she was an oversized woman. Mrs. Turpin considered herself blessed from the man above. God makes people a certain shape and size for a very specific reason. Racism is an underlying message. It’s been a common theme for most of O’Connor stories. Ruby took pride in herself for being too friendly to the black idiots. She would consider the black people “on the bottom of the heap”, at the same level as white-trash people, but separate. One white-trash woman who is also racist herself, thinking that is above black