Discrimination and Mrs. Turpin Essay

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The story “Revelation” by Flannery O’ Connor, is set in the time when discrimination of according to race and people’s wealth was common. This story is centered on social discrimination of a person by the name of Mrs. Turpin. On many occasions in the story, she is grateful that she isn’t someone of the a lower class. But by the end, the story takes a dramatic turn. This major event transforms the way Mrs. Turpin looks and treats other people.
Mrs. Turpin is a farmer that is kind, considerate, and caring of others. Even her workers said “You so sweet. You the sweetest lady I know.” (O’Connor 11). So she is a nice person. But she does something a lot that is not so nice. She sees herself as a person higher on the pedestal than a lot of people who which she discriminates. Most of the time she says it in her head. For example, “Her heart rose. HE had not made her a nigger or white-trash or ugly! He had made her herself and given her a little of everything. Jesus, thank you! she said.” (O’Connor 6) She says this in a way that makes it sound like being a "nigger” or “white trash” is a bad thing. Yes, everyone has their negative sides to their personality. There is no such thing as bad people, just bad decisions. This is why at the doctor’s office the young women Marie Grace gives Mrs. Turpin stern and mean looks. In the story it says “There was no doubt in her mind that the girl did know her, know her in some intense and personal way, beyond time and place and condition.” (O’Connor 8). It is almost as if Marie Grace could read her mind. When Mrs. Turpin said in her head that she was grateful for not being a “nigger” or “white trash” she got angry. In the end Marie Grace threw a book at her and strangled her because of Mrs. Turpin discriminating against others.
The real question is did she learn anything from this? The answer is yes. Mrs. Turpin ponders why Marie Grace said what she said and did what she did. But at the end of the story, as she is washing the concrete, she has a vision. She sees a light from the sky touch the Earth. Then she sees a procession of people walking up to the sky on the path of light. But the procession is in a particular order. Mrs. Turpin sees all the people she thinks are beneath her and at the end she sees people like her. Then she finally figures it out and is greatly changed.
In the end, Mrs. Turpin was changed. She was changed from being a discriminatory person who thought she was better than those she
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