Revelation by Flannery O'Connor - Essay Example

 ‘Revelation’ is one of the stories in the collection Everything That Rises Must Converge written by Flannery O’Connor, a famous American writer. The story mainly centers on Mrs. Ruby Turpin, the main character of the story. Through this character, the story successfully brings out the theme of social prejudice where people form opinions about events and others without fully understanding them. The majority of the events of the story take place in a doctor’s waiting room where the main character, Mrs. Turpin, has accompanied her husband, Claud, who is unwell. Through her interactions with other characters in the room, the real character of Mrs. Turpin is well brought out, and consequently, the central theme of the story is advanced. Mrs. Turpin is a self opinionated woman who believes to be superior and of a higher social class. The experiences of life cause her to reflect on her life, and correct the errors of the past, and finally realize that she isn’t as righteous as initially thought. While at the doctor’s office, the attitudes and characteristics of Mrs. Turpin are clearly brought out. First, Turpin is portrayed to be a judgmental individual with a negative perception about others. For example, while at the waiting room, she looked at the boy and the old woman and “could tell by the way they sat- kind of vacant and white-trashy, as if they would sit there until Doomsday” (O’Connor, 139). Through such thoughts, it is clear that Turpin never thought positively of those around them but instead was quick to pick out the real or perceived negativities about them. Her hate for others is further illustrated by her choice of either being white or black. If she had been given a choice by Jesus of either being a nigger or a white trash, she would have chosen “a nigger then-but that don't mean a trashy one” (O’Connor, 140). Here, one can clearly see that she disliked white people to the extreme. She is intolerable and looks down upon everyone around her. Second, the story further reveals Turpin to be an egoistic woman with an extreme world view. She perceives herself to be a very important person, belonging to an elite class of only a few. For instance, she spent most of her time at night putting people into various categories. The colored and the white-trash people were ranked lowly. She felt that she wouldn’t want to be in this category. However, for her and the husband, they belonged to a higher class of “the home-and-land owners” (O’Connor, 142). According to her, most of the people in the society, including those at the doctor’s office, were of a lower social ranking. In fact, she perceived them to less important to less intelligent merely based on the social classes she had constricted over the years. Thirdly, Turpin’s religious beliefs make her justify her actions and thoughts. Through religion, she is able to defend her weird wild view. For instance, she says that he was not made a nigger or a white-trash but had been “given her a little of everything” (O’Connor, 144). Clearly, Turpin wrongly used religion to justify her actions, attitudes and behaviors. She believed that Jesus had made her a perfect human being, unlike others who had one problem or the other. Her views, reactions and beliefs illustrated while at the doctor’s office define who Turpin was. However, the doctor’s office was also a major turning point in her life. Mrs. Turpin’s attitude, character and view of life are changed based on the experiences she encounters. This begins right at the waiting room when Mary Grace kept looking at her in a way that suggested she knew Turpin in some “intense and personal way, beyond time and place and condition” (O’Connor, 146). Through her looks, Turpin started to realize that people were seeing her differently, and this was the beginning of the revelation. Grace attacks Mrs. Turpin and tells her to “Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog” (O’Connor, 146). This message made Turpin to sink back in her chair and started to deeply think of what she had been told. She began to ask herself; “How am I a hog? Exactly how am I like them” (O’Connor, 150). She begins to see herself as trash; just the same way she had treated everybody at the office and throughout her life. While at her home, Turpin cries and gets angry that such a message was directed to her. She even asks herself why the message had been directed to her instated of the trash in there; “there was plenty of trash there. It didn’t have to be me” (O’Connor, 150). Here, the reader can clearly see that Turpin was taking time to evaluate herself. Throughout her life, she judged others- their appearance, dressing etc. The message given to her by the girl made her reflect about her life. Turpin revelation further comes in the form of a vision. While standing near the pen, she raised “her hands from the side of the pen in a gesture hieratic and profound;” she received a vision in the form of a “visionary light” that “settled in her eyes” (O’Connor, 151). The visionary light here symbolizes new pair of eyes she had acquired. Her view of other people and life in general started to change. The visionary light appeared like a bridge that extended from “earth through a field of living fire” (O’Connor, 151). She saw people on the bridge different from what she had been used to. For instance, there were “companies of white trash, clean for the first time in their lives” (O’Connor, 151). She saw white niggers in “white robes” and “battalions of freaks and lunatics shouting and clapping and leaping like frogs” (O’Connor, 151). At the end of the procession was the group of people she once recognized as the elite. These were the people she considered to have been given a little bit of everything by God and were better than white trash and niggers. Through this vision, Turpin now begins to understand that white-trash and naggers are normal human beings with dignity. This revelation made her understand that her views about others and life are flawed. This story therefore highlights to the readers the journey of Mrs. Turpin through life. At first, she is shown to be a self-centered and mean person who uses religion to justify her deeds and flawed world views. However, she is forced to reevaluate her life after the experience she had with Grace at the doctor’s office. This makes her examine herself, and finally gets a visionary light that helps her understand her errors in life. Works Cited Connor, Flannery. Everything That Rises Must Converge. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1965 Read More