Revelation by flannery oconnor
Revelation by flannery oconnorAuthor Flannery O�Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia, on March 25, 1925. She was born and raised Catholic, facts that defined her personal faith and helped shape her independent and ironic take on life. According to our textbook, "O�Connor�s fiction grapples with living a spiritual life in a secular world"(318). Her novels and stories all involve the theme of religion and questions about spirituality. In fact, in many of her stories, the main character questions his or her own faith or undergoes a major revelatory change. This essay starts of asking the question: does the main character in O�Connor�s short story "Revelation" undergo an actual revelation? And answers that question with a resounding "no."
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 room and the black helpers on her farm. She is repulsively guilty of pride and obsessed with status and property She believes you have to "have certain things before you can know certain things"(344).
Her "revelation" is brought on by an unattractive, yet well educated young woman in a doctor�s office. Mary Grace ends up throwing a book at Mrs. Turpin because of her frustration with the woman�s ignorance. After Mrs. Turpin gets knocked upside the head, she looks at Mary Grace, expecting God to talk to her, and she is told that she is a "wart hog." Mrs. Turpin, still thinking this is a message from God, is quite confused by it. She doesn�t know where it came from, or its true meaning, so she searches herself for
it. She ends up, supposedly, "seeing the light" while hosing down the pigs in her pig parlor.
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 doctor�s 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,...
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