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Revelations and Parker's Back

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Revelations and Parker's Back
Revelations and Parker 's Back

The story "Revelations" by Flannery O 'Connor portrays the character of Ms. Turpin as a very hypocritical Christian. It 's absurd how obvious she is in her view of society; it could not be less unchristian like. Her opinions towards other people and their intelligence are Ms. Turpin 's greatest flaw. "Parker 's Back" also written by Flannery O 'Connor is just the opposite of Revelations, Parker spends his entire life trying to fill a void that has grown so deep inside him it becomes unbearable. His continual dislike and downgrading of Christianity plays into his problems even more. The stories have very unique approaches, both of which prove to be very intriguing. The character of Ms. Turpin shows from the very start that she is going to encounter many problems as the story progresses. Her dislike for Negroes or as she referred to them as "niggers" and her constant distinction of social class ranking showed that she was not the Christian she claimed to be. When she talks about cotton she says "you can 't get the white folks to pick it and now you can 't get the niggers-because they got to be right up there with the white folk." When she looked at herself she saw a very good Christian. She always congratulated herself on how she always helped everyone and was always there to take care of her slaves. Nevertheless she had hidden meaning for all of these; she only helped the slaves so that she could make sure she would not lose them. Also Ms. Turpin chose to critique every person she encountered and discuss their flaws and how she was glad that God did not make her a nigger or white trash. Mrs. Turpin explains her views when she says "If its one thing I am, its grateful. When I think who all I could have been besides myself and what I got, a little of everything, I just feel like shouting." Her character does not seem to be a very honest character; she puts on an act around everybody to make sure she can derive from them what she



Cited: McFarland, Dorothy T. "A Formalist Reading of ‘Revelation. '" The Bedford Introduction to Literature (1996): p409-410 Heldt, Todd. "Browse Through Flannery O 'Connor." 2002<Http:ww2.netnitco.net/users/thall/bio.html> Startzman, Gene "Parker 's Back" 2002<Http://library.gcsu.edu/~sc/focarch/1997-12-14.txt>

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