Flannery O'Connor's short story, Revelation, is about prejudice during the Civil Rights Movement of the nineteen sixties. In her story, O'Connor expresses the prejudice felt by her and many other people of the time. This prejudice did not stop at skin color alone. The prejudice encompassed all aspects of life; race, social status, physical looks etc. In her story, O'Connor shows the ignorance of the main character, Mrs. Turpin, by saying,.
Sometimes Mrs. Turpin occupied herself at night naming the classes of people. On the bottom of the heap were most colored people, not the kind she would have been if she had been one, but most of them; then next to them "not above, just away from "were the white-trash; then above them were the home-owners, and above them the home-and-land owners, to which she and Claud belonged. (439).
The character Mrs. Turpin clearly has issues with people who she sees as inferior to herself. Often times she would ask herself if it would be better to be a nigger or white-trash. The fact that Mrs. Turpin thinks about being a nigger or white-trash as if it were some sort of game shows how strong her prejudice is. She has no respect for people who are different from herself. She sees different people not as humans, but as objects to be detested and laughed at.
Near the end of O'Connor's story, Mrs. Turpin experiences a revelation. She sees a vision in which all the people who she thinks of as below her are ascending towards heaven. The white-trash, niggers, freaks, and bums are all going to the same place as people just like Mrs. Turpin. This revelation is supposed to be O'Connor's lesson to her readers. O'Connor is trying to say that the beliefs of people like Mrs. Turpin are wrong and should no longer be a part of society.
I agree with O'Connor's revelation. I find it appalling that some people believe in stereotypes which say that some people are not equal to others.
