Analysis Of Mrs. Turpin In Flannery O 'Connor's Revelation'

Mary is so embarrassed that she starts to curse uncontrollably. During the time period of the story, the African Americans were seen as “animals” and swearing was viewed as being unwomanly and animal like. At the third encounter, Twyla and Roberta meet each other at the Food Emporium which is a rich, gourmet grocery store. Shopping at the same grocery store implies that both of the women are well off economically and are not necessary struggling. This acquaintance counteracts the previous theory that Twyla was black and Roberta was white because both women were shopping at rich stores. Contradicting meetings like these happen throughout the short story and Morrison manipulates the contrasting details of the races’ to make the reader befuddled during the conclusion of the story.

Mrs. Turpin in Flannery O’Connor’s short story Revelation, is a prejudice and judgmental woman who spends most of her life prying in the lives of everyone around her. She looks at people not for who they are, but for their race or social standing. In fact, Mrs. Turpin is concerned with race and status so much that it seems to take over her life. Although she seems to disapprove of people of different race or social class, Mrs. Turpin seems to be content and appreciative with her own life. It is not until Mrs. Turpin’s Revelation that she discovers that her ways of life are no better then those she looks down upon and they will not assure her a place in Heaven.

O’Connor paints a picture of a woman who thinks she has everything figured out, but her use of irony in the setting shows

When Mary visits Twlya on Easter, the clothing that she has on is seen as inappropriate for chapel, the fact that she did not catch on to Roberta’s mother not wanting to shake her hand, and also the fact that she did not bring her daughter lunch, provide very clear examples of the failures Twyla sees within her mother. Using words like “simple-minded,” “twitched,” and “groaned,” before admitting that, she “could have killed her”(page 242). Twlya effectively links the failures she sees in her mother with Maggie’s disability. Viewing Maggie’s impairments as the physical representation of Mary’s undesirable traits gives the audience an explanation for why Twlya initially reacted negatively toward Maggie, whose physical shortcomings remind Twlya of the shortcomings she sees within her own mother. Taunting Maggie as a child was Twyla seeking vengeance upon Mary. She was only paying attention to Maggie’s physical traits, while her allowing her actual personality to go

(Bowen, 2000.) Although not much insight is given into the awful relationship Mary had with her late husband, there’s is evident that she resents her daughter. Precious became the target of neglect and abuse due to the fact that, her father raped her and her mother instead of protecting her became jealous of her own daughter. Mary intentionally tries to impair her daughter Precious by constantly demoralizing her by telling her that she is ugly, fat and stupid. Mary is fixed on the idea of hurting her physically, emotionally and psychologically. Mary is a constant remind to Precious of how she will be nothing without her. As a result, she internalizes this tension and many aspects of her life suffers. Precious is performing poorly at school, her physical health is bad as she is overly obese and she is a loner in the sense that she makes no effort to befriend anyone. She is constantly worried about what her mother is going to do to her for the day or she is constantly on edge with her mother, not knowing what to

Though this Southern Christian white woman is superficially pleasant and well-mannered, she conceals her ugly thoughts of class stratum cognizant of what is below her pedestal. A church going woman who treats slaves fairly, she believes her time volunteered and philosophy of doing things for others are enough to sanctify her ugliness on the inside. The omniscient narrator observes that “Mrs. Turpin felt at awful pity… it was one thing to be ugly and another to act ugly” (473) Ironically, Mrs. Turpin is the one who acts ugly. Arrogant about her station in life, when faced to choose between “a nigger or white-trash” she would plead with Jesus to “let [her] wait until there’s another place available” (472). Silently judging others she is pleased to not be anything less socially acceptable than she already is, and often occupies herself at night classifying people. Mrs. Turpin believed that you “had to have certain things before you could know certain things;” this consequently places her on a higher plane (474).

Turpin’s standards in her eyes. The readers can see through Mrs. Turpins thoughts and views how brutal and harsh she really is for example, when Mrs. Turpin is talking to herself and asks herself a question “If Jesus had said to her before he made her, there’s only two places available for you. You can either be a nigger or white trash, what would she have said?” Mrs. Turpin answers with “All right, make me a nigger then- but that don’t mean a trashy one. And he would have made her a neat clean respectable Negro-woman, herself but black.” (416).

Flannery O’Connor, undoubtedly one of the most well-read authors of the early 20th Century, had many strong themes deeply embedded within all her writings. Two of her most prominent and poignant themes were Christianity and racism. By analyzing, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Everything that Rises Must Converge,” these two themes jump out at the reader. Growing up in the mid-1920’s in Georgia was a huge influence on O’Connor. Less than a decade before her birth, Georgia was much different than it was at her birth. Slaves labored tirelessly on their master’s plantations and were indeed a facet of everyday life. However, as the Civil War ended and Reconstruction began, slaves were not easily assimilated into Southern culture. Thus, O’Connor grew up in a highly racist area that mourned the fact that slaves were now to be treated as “equals.” In her everyday life in Georgia, O’Connor encountered countless citizens who were not shy in expressing their discontent toward the black race. This indeed was a guiding influence and inspiration in her fiction writing. The other guiding influence in her life that became a major theme in her writing was religion. Flannery O 'Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia, the only child of a Catholic family. The region was part of the 'Christ-haunted ' Bible belt of the Southern States. The spiritual heritage of the region profoundly shaped O 'Connor 's writing as described in her essay "The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South" (1969). Many

The usage of informal language in the beginning of the story, produces transparent characters by exposing their flaws through their speech. Opening with the reckless announcement addressed by Mrs.Turpin, “I wish I could reduce”(3). in front of strangers had marked her hasty character. This early exposure of her flaw notes the tragedy of her character for being quick to speak, quick to conclude and quick to judge. As Mrs.Turpin begins to build judgment upon others from “Girl Scout Shoes” to “bedroom slippers” as she “expects”(5) Mrs.Turpin becomes a false believer, drowning within her own deceptive conclusion by gripping onto her theory of goodness being carried by people’s shoes. Ultimately,

Turpin did. Somehow, we have to right the wrong, and clear our conscience, come to grips with it and learn to live with how we are, or change. Mrs. Turpin was one of the lucky ones; she saw a vision in the sky, which helped clear things up for her. “A visionary light settled in her eyes, she saw the streak as vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire: upon it a vast horde of souls were rumbling towards heaven. There were whole companies of white trash, clean for the first time in their lives, and bands of black niggers in white robes and battalions of freaks and lunatics shouting, clapping, and leaping like frogs. And bringing up the end of the procession was a tribe of people whom she recognized at once as those who, like herself and Claud, had always had a little of everything and the God-given wit to use it right. She leaned forward to observe them closer. They were marching behind the others, with great dignity; accountable as they had always been for good order and common sense. They alone were on key” (331). “Yet she could see by their shocked and altered faces that even their virtues were being burned away” (332). Ultimately, Mrs. Turpin was shown that no matter what she thought of herself or how she judged others, God makes his own decisions and in the end, it may surprise us all, just as it did Mrs.

O’Connor takes her main characters through an epiphany in which therefore helps the characters to become aware of their own ignorance. The characters eventually gained knowledge or better yet became self-aware of their attitudes towards others through some form of an unexpected tragedy. O’Connor wants her readers to see how no matter how much you try to cover or justify your ignorant ways whether it be through grace, judgment is still imminent. “In A Good Man is Hard to Find”, O’Connor reveals in this story both grace, redemption and pride. The

Upon arrival to her aunts she is quickly confronted about the items and her aunt is dissatisfied with her disobedience. “I did not understand your note, Ma’am, to contain positive order; and Mary and I did not think it was quite right to take the things. Right! pretty judges of right to be sure. She a hired girl, and a Methodist into the bargain” (37). Jane makes the claim that she and Mary did not “think” it was right and purposefully leaves out the face that they had a brief discussion about what she should do before she made her decision. She also emphasizes that she failed to “contain positive order” thus hinting to her aunt that she understood what she asked of her but knew it was wrong and thus, she did not carry out her wishes. Here Mrs. Wilson decides to mock Mary Hull’s occupation, as well as religion, in an effort to show her inferiority. She makes it know that Mary Hull is a Methodist woman and basically shows no respect towards her or her religion of choice. Earlier in the text she speaks about how she believes that Mary’s religion had conveyed a reproach to take of her own and for this reason she was not very fond of her.

Turpin’s character in Heger’s theory is through her thoughts. Mrs. Turpin always thinks about the other-self with negativity in the first part. She spoke negatively about the old man because he would not offer her seat, stating that he would learn manners if he was her child (O’Conner 1-2). She creates an image where people, including the slaves, should act like her, satisfying her needs and obey her commands. With her husband, Claud, he chooses to obey his wife. However, the old man never obeys, leaving her to find another seat. It shows that she judges the old man, not even asking politely for the man to move over so she can sit. Heger’s theory will show that the master expects the slave to submit to her commands; when the slave refuses to obey her, the master becomes in trouble, making the slave seem equal or powerful than the master itself (Leitch, Norton 538). The master will either choose to ignore the man or to accept the man. Moreover, Mrs. Turpin could easily engage with other people who are like her or to interact with man with conversation and understanding of his problems. Because if she chose to interact with the old man, she could have come into full consciousness to understand the old man’s tale enduring enslavement from slave owners and the injustice against his people. She would have endure the process of synthesis where the “the-self” (thesis) and “the-other-self” (antithesis) comes to contact where she recognize the

Mrs. Turpin explains her views when she says “If its one thing I am, its grateful. When I think who all I could have been besides myself and what I got, a little of everything, I just feel like shouting.“ Her character does not seem to be a very honest character; she puts on an act around everybody to make sure she can derive from them what she needs. A perspective on this from Dorothy T. McFarland in a formalist reading was that “O’Connor obviously felt that Mrs. Turpin’s belief in her own goodness was, if anything, more of an obstacle to the salvation of her soul that an outright commitment to evil.“(perspectives,409) She always seemed to think she was doing right, never seeing anything wrong until the end of the story. After being called a wart hog from hell she opens her eyes and sees the truth. A good way of understanding the symbolic ness of this is best put by Todd Heldt when they say “no amount of cleansing will ever change the essence, no amount of good work or intellectual justification will change the sinful nature of human beings.”(Browse) She was finally realizing the concept of her being a bad Christian. She finally comes to terms with her sense of herself. The other story “Parker’s Back” takes another unique route.

This expanded criticism of societal morality is represented metaphorically in the relations between Mary Johnson and her daughter Maggie. As Maggie’s relationship with Pete offers her new independence from her abusive mother, Mary condemns her child as ungrateful and unholy for disobeying her. Venting to her son, Mary says “‘may Gawd curse her forever… May she sleep in deh gutter an’ never see deh sun shine agin” (Maggie 38). After abusing her daughter for years, Mary here attacks Maggie for disobeying her and starting an independent life.