Unveiling Meaning: Barthes’s Five Codes in O’Connor’s Revelation

Abstract

The objective of this research is to use Barthes’s five narrative codes when reconstructing meaning of Flannery O’Connor’s short story Revelation, published in 1965. Barthes believed that the texts always have certain archetypes so that the readers may enter the analysis on a deeper level. This qualitative analysis is focused on the performance of these codes in the selected text to disclose the intended message of the story. The hermeneutic code is denoted by the title; it creates a sort of intrigue and curiosity. This type is involved with response, directions, and control and progresses the story. This cultural code can be detected as far as the feature of the characters and their background refers to the specific social standards. Thus, the semantic code builds as a result of interactions of characters, for example, when they are in the waiting room and during the corresponding shifts in the mood. The symbolic code manifests through items as well as activities that have concealed significance.