At the beginning of the story, we are introduced to Mrs. Turpin, a loud, racist southern landowner. She believes that there are classes of people, and blacks, for example, are below homeowners, but above white trash. She does not, however, consider herself racist. This is a dangerous characteristic to have. She claims to treat blacks well, but she refers to them as "niggers" and clearly states that she is above them. Mrs. Turpin is grateful to be a "superior" white landowner who is above the white trash in the waiting

The vision she gets is one of a "vast horde of soulsŠrumbling toward heaven"(353).

After Mary Grace hits Mrs. Turpin with the book, her vision suddenly became distorted. She was beginning to see things as large instead of small. She looks over at Mary Grace, who is staring at her, and begins to realize that "the girl did know her, knew her in some intense and personal way, beyond time and place and condition"(348). The eyes of Mary Grace became clear, and Mrs. Turpin asks her "what do you got to say to me"(348)? Mrs. Turpin is expecting a message from God, himself, for she believes Mary Grace might be an angel sent down to give her a divine message. At this point, Mary Grace says to Mrs. Turpin, "go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog"(348). When Mrs. Turpin hears this, she doesn¹t know what to do. Her mind goes blank, her limbs go limp, and she¹s trying to understand what has just been told to her.

The first impression the reader gets of Mrs. Turpin is one of dominance. She is portrayed as "large" and "loud." She controls her husband, Claud, treating him like a child. She immediately takes over the conversation in the room and forces her opinions and thoughts onto everyone. She proceeds to judge everybody in the doctor¹s waiting room: pitying the girl with acne while she takes pride in the fact she "always had good skin"(341), and calling the "white trash" woman and child "worse than niggers"(341). After the reader is subjected to the different classes according to Mrs. Turpin, the reader hears an ironic lyric that Mrs. Turpin supplies. A hymn comes over the radio in the waiting room and "Mrs. Turpin, who knew it, supplied the last line mentally, 'And wonna these days I know I¹ll we-eara crown¹"(341). This line tells the reader that Mrs. Turpin believes she is so much better than everyone else that she wants to lord over them. She "knows" someday she¹ll be weari!

Since Mrs. Turpin is blind to her own bigotry, Mary Grace¹s rage seems to stem from nowhere on earth. For her, Mary Graces represents a point of view that she can not comprehend: one who sees the jokes and gossip of these southern bigots as evil and hellbound. Mrs. Turpin dismisses the possibility that Mary Grace might be right before she even considers it. As we have seen

owners, to which she and Claud belonged. Above she and Claud were people with a lot of money and much bigger houses and much more land"(342).

By the end of this vision, she seems even surer of her virtues, and she seems to believe that, because of this vision, she is even more sympathetic and non-judgmental. She is still, however, the same Mrs. Turpin who distinguishes between the classes, and calls people lunatics while calling herself, and her kind "respectable." She labels "white-trash" and implies that they are naturally dirty. She calls black people "niggers" and sees them with white robes on. She still seems to think that her kind is better than

The name of the book, Human Development, is a very significant and blatant use of symbolism in the story. It suggests to the reader that Mrs. Turpin has far to go in the course of her own "human development." This story takes place during a time in history when things are changing, and people are realizing that blacks deserve equal treatment. Mrs. Turpin seems to not fully grasp the concept of black civil rights and fair treatment. The fact that a well educated girl like Mary Grace is reading a book ent

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Approximate Word count = 2338
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)