The Revelation in O"Connor's Revelation.
Cultural studies, as applied to literary criticism, states that the works that come out of a certain region are inherently tied to the socioeconomic and culturalistic values of that region. The Southern United States is generally said to be one of the more historically religious areas of the country. It is no surprise that Flannery O"Connor's works would deal with ideas of good and evil, right and wrong, and more importantly Christianity and the role it plays in the Southern United States. In examining her short story Revelation, it will become apparent that O"Connor's Christian upbringing and the moral beliefs that came with it both remained with, and at times tormented her.
Growing up in a southern religious family there is no doubt that Flannery O"Connor knew the intricacies of her family's religion. Being raised a Southern Baptist, who would later convert to Catholicism; O"Connor would let religion play a major role in her live, and as the old saying goes, "A good writer writes what they know," so went O"Connor. Revelation gives the reader insight into exactly how O"Connor feels about her religious convictions, but more importantly about the masses that attended the Sunday sermons.
While there are those who objected to how O"Connor portraits the Christian religion in her writings, she herself writes of this, "The stories are hard, but they are hard because there is nothing harder or less sentimental than Christian realism" (Polter). This statement from O"Connor gives insight into what she felt while writing Revelation. The Christian realism that O"Connor speaks, of is her observations of those people who go to church on Sundays but the rest of the week forget what being a Christian is supposed to mean. .
In order to illustrate her point, O"Connor uses the character of Mrs. Turpin as a means to give the reader an example of the problem she sees with only leading a Christian life on Sundays.