A Biographical Analysis of "Revelation" by Flannery O'Connor

<Tab/>Flannery O'Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia on March 25, 1925. Her Southern upbringing had a major influence on her writing, and is shown clearly in her short story Revelation. At the time of her childhood, most whites in the South were very prejudiced towards people of other races and lifestyles. The general idea was that the less fortunate were of a lesser social and personal quality, resulting in a caste-like system …

…being burned away."(423) In painful clarity, Mrs. Turpin recognizes the inadequacy of her respectability and the shallowness of her values. The vision shows her how--considered by God no more worthy than white-trash, or niggers, or freaks--she can be both a wart hog before the judgment seat of God and saved, too. Mrs. Turpin's "Revelation" shows clearly a strong base in Christianity, and a moral is presented that is relative to any generation of modern-day Christians.