The Analysis Of The Short Story "Revelation" By Flannery O’Connor
Revelation
The short story “Revelation” by Flannery O’Connor gives a look into the ideology of people living in a society set in its own ways of ignorance. It begins with the very religious main character, Mrs. Turpin, walking into a doctor’s waiting room with her injured husband before she proceeds to converse with the other patients. Conversation ensues, racial opinions come to light, and the protagonist Mrs. Turpin is suddenly attacked by Mary Grace because of her angering ideologies. After the attack, Mary Grace’s words seem to stay with Mrs. Turpin when she finally goes home, and she has an epiphany that may have changed her life. Throughout the story, Mrs. Turpin comes off as very self-righteous, contradictory, and discriminatory towards the people she knows and even strangers alike, and this makes for very interesting and sudden character development.
Mrs. Turpin is a woman who is very sure of herself and lets it be known that she is more than satisfied with where she is set in life. She presents herself with a sense of moral superiority that is boosted by her distorted view of religion and of Jesus. Mrs. Turpin claims that “she never spared herself when she found somebody in need, whether they were white or black, trash or decent” (436), which is pretty telling of her overall character. She sees herself as someone who is selfless, as someone who gives to those in need no matter their skin color or status. This point is easily refutable, as she can be quoted just earlier in the conversation saying, “I sure am tired of buttering up niggers, but you got to love em if you want em to work for you” (434). Mrs. Turpin claims to be such a good Christian woman, but seems to only be kind to her workers so that they may work diligently for her. She holds herself higher than those around her, continuing to believe she is a morally sound being.
Her levels of self-awareness aren’t quite as prominent as others, either. Mrs. Turpin thinks to herself, “If Jesus had said, “You can be high society and have all the money you want and be thin and svelte-like, but you can’t be a good woman with it,” she would have had to say, “Well don’t make me that then. Make me a good woman, it don’t matter what else, how fat or how ugly or how poor!” [. . .] He had not made her a nigger or white-trash or ugly!” (436). She claims to want to be a good woman over being of a higher class or of lesser weight, that Jesus had made her in her best image. This said, Mrs. Turpin still sees others in such an inferior way thus not quite making her as good a woman as she claims to be; the contradictions in her speech and thoughts are highly evident with her every statement. The narration paints Mrs. Turpin as someone who is good-hearted and has never done any wrong in her life, stating “The message has been given to Ruby Turpin, a respectable, hard-working, church-going woman” (440), which was said right after the earlier attack from Mary Grace because of Mrs. Turpin’s very racist and ignorant remarks.
The image presented of Mrs. Turpin being a godly woman of moral values is hardly believable when the narrative she supports is one of bigotry and blatant discrimination. She states that “there’s a heap of things worse than a nigger, [. . .] It’s all kinds of them just like it’s all kinds of us” (435). To refer to black people by a slur created to continuously oppress a specific demographic is purely racist and she uses it without a second’s notice to address those of color in a conversation demeaning them. She’s very upfront and vocal about her shared view of her prejudices, as they don’t seem wrong to her. Mrs. Turpin’s discrimination doesn’t limit strictly to blacks, however, as even her fellow whites are not safe from such judgmental thoughts- albeit less so. She speaks to herself- to God- and asks, “If trash is what you wanted why didn’t you make me trash?” (443) in reference of those who are less fortunate than she.
Anyone with less than she has is considered to be low in her opinion and Mrs. Turpin doesn’t shy away from acknowledging the fact. From her self-righteous and contradictory ways to her discriminatory viewpoints, Mrs. Turpin’s character is unlikable in many aspects. Flannery O’Connor’s story of a woman with so much wrong receiving- as the title implies- revelation is filled with real-life ideologies that are still held today by actual people. The prejudice against black people and poor people was so very prevalent in the time of this piece, and it shows through Mrs. Turpin’s words and thoughts that she holds throughout the story. “Revelation” does well in giving insight of the close-minded ideologies held through the eyes of one who saw no wrong in their doings, closing with an open-ending of a message from- perhaps- the divine themselves.
Works Cited:
- O’Conner, Flannery. “Revelation” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Twelfth Edition. Eds. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 431-444.
