Flannery O'Connor's background was a big influencing factor in her decision to write the short story "Revelation." One of the more important influences on the story is her Southern upbringing. During her lifetime, Southerners were very prejudiced towards people of other ethnicitys and lifestyles. The belief ran rampant that people who were less fortunate were inferior to them; therefore, people were labeled as different things and placed into different social classes. The Southern atmosphere provided O'Connor with much of the imagery she needed for her characters to be developed in the form that they are. .
The characters in the story are identified by physical characteristics and some are even identified with racial terms. The main character in the story is the one that is most noticeably prejudiced, making many statements spiced with racial jargon and stereotypes. For example, Mrs. Turpin, the main character, refers to the higher-class woman as "well-dressed and pleasant". She also labels the teenage girl as "ugly" and the poor woman as "white-trashy". When Mrs. Turpin converses with her black workers, she often uses the word "nigger" in her thoughts. These characteristics give us an inside glimpse of the Southern lifestyle in which the author was participating in during the writing of this story. In addition to her Southern upbringing, another influence on the story is Flannery O'Connor's illness. .
O"Conner battled with the lupus disease, which may have caused her to use a degree of violence and anger to make her stories somewhat unhappy. Although she was sick, O'Connor still felt proud to be who she was. By comparison, Mrs. Turpin in "Revelation" has a good selfimage. She is far from perfect, yet she is happy to be who she is. .
This background, together with a believable plot, convincing characterization, and important literary devices enable Flannery O'Connor in "Revelation" to develop the theme that .