Revelation': Mrs. Turpin, A Hypocrite

Two characters, Elisa Allen and Mary Teller, struggle with the idea of being accepted into the society of the 1930s. Women’s rights were not fully accepted in the 1930s, and these two characters were set in the common day view of men and women. In the 1930s, “[Society has] assigned to white women such roles as housewife, secretary, PTA chairman, and schoolteacher. Black women can now be schoolteachers, too, but they are most prominently assigned to such domestic roles as maid, cook, waitress, and babysitter” (Chisholm 123). These assigned roles have impacted women around the world, including the two characters in these short stories - “The Chrysanthemums” and “The White Quail”. Not being activists in women’s rights, these women conformed to society and lived their lives as any typical housewife in the 1930s. Their passions and choices during this time affected their way of living and relationships. The two stories reflect similarities of the women’s love for gardening and lonely marriages, but also reflect their different viewpoints on the world they live in.

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.

Turpin had to bring her husband, Claud, for medical attention due to a leg ulcer. Upon entrance, Mrs. Turpin glances around seemingly taking notes of every occupant and placing them into socioeconomic categories solely based on appearance and preconceived notions. Mrs. Turpin specifically notices a large acne ridden teenage girl reading a book titled “Human Development,” who wears a scowl on her face as if it were specifically for her. Mrs. Turpin begins to discuss with the other occupants in the room about her beliefs and her religious values. While in conversation with Mrs. Hopewell, Mrs. Turpin learned the name of the large scowl-faced girl was named Mary Grace. Mary Grace, a round character in the story, seemed to have a personal vendetta against Mrs. Turpin, one that Mary Grace was not afraid to show. Grace's mother, Mrs. Hopewell rambled on about how educated her daughter was, but that it was a shame she never smiled or expressed gratitude. Mrs. Turpin expressed how grateful and blessed she is, until she is struck in the head by the book Grace was reading earlier. Mary Grace whispers, “Go back to hell where you came from, you old warthog” (393). Those words stuck with Mrs. Turpin, dwelling in her thoughts until they enraged her. Mrs. Turpin starts screaming to the sky that she is not what that girl called her, then as quickly as her rage came, a revelation overcame her

In his article “Latin Names and Images of Ugliness in Flannery O’Connor’s ‘Revelation’,” literary scholar Ronald E. Pepin writes about the prevalence of ugliness in this addition to O’Connor’s continuum. He begins his analysis with the main character and protagonist; Ruby Turpin. Ruby is portrayed as self-righteous and blind to her own flaws. Her judgmental nature and entitled attitude lead to conflict with other characters; most notably antagonist Mary Grace, who quickly sees the “ugliness” within Ruby Turpin. In the short story, Mary Grace quietly sits across the doctor’s office from Mrs. Turpin trying to distract herself from Ruby’s racist and condescending comments; but fails to withhold her anger and lashes out verbally and physically. According to the article, Ruby is the only character who’s

She successfully uses made-up characters from the south to depict a rather bizarre religiosity of the protestant fundamentalists to show a spiritual life which is struggling to exist in what is rather a non-spiritual world. Flannery O'Connor's qualifications affected her to create the story "Revelation." an essential impact on the tale is her Southern experience. During her life-time, Southerners were extremely prejudiced towards other people of other cultures. They regarded that poor individuals were substandard to them; therefore, individuals were marked as different things and placed into different community sessions.

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

Religion is one of the main themes in her works and also in "Greenleaf." In this short story, the Southern writer exposes two of her major preoccupations about religion:

Turpin’s antics she hurls the book she has been reading in the waiting room at her. Dumas and Wilson write about the title of this book in their article in Southern Literary Journal. “There is an obvious irony behind Mary Grace’s attack of Mrs. Turpin with a Human Development book” (77). The irony of this is that Mary Grace obviously thinks that Mrs. Turpin is lacking in Human Development. O’Connor describes the event as so, “The book struck her directly over her left eye. It struck almost at the same instant that she realized the girl was about to hurl it” (393). It shocked everyone in the waiting room. When Mrs. Turpin’s head cleared she looked straight into the girl’s eyes and said “What you got to say to me?” with that the young girl responded with a whisper with what is one of the most important lines in the story, “Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog” (394). These words shook Mrs. Turpin to her

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 concept of judging other individuals based on their looks and class status is a reflection seen within Flannery O’Connor’s short story called “Revelation.” In this story O’Connor illustrates a women who is extremely arrogant, and believes that she is superior to others because of her white skin and wealth. This

In “A good man is hard to find”, revelations” and “Everything that rises must converge” by Flannery O’Connor clearly portray a theme of racism based on selfishness, pride and grace. All three main characters undergo a prophecy like moment that eventually leads to the loss of their dignity and selfish attitude and in turn they each achieve grace. This paper will provide a detailed analysis on how all three main characters go from being selfish to eventually self-analyzing themselves and in turn they mature and gain grace and change the way they view others. My investigation of these stories will show how each protagonist had to experience some form of tragedy in order to become self-aware of the way people perceive them. O’Connor presents in these stories how each main character and also in reality people in life need to be brought to a tragic like moment in life that causes them to not continue in the ways they are accustomed to.

The word revelation supports one of the stories main themes, “judge not, and ye shall not be judged” (Luke 6;37). As the main character, Ruby Turpin, sits in the waiting room of the doctor’s office; She recalls the question that often comes to mind as she lays in bed at night. “If Jesus had said to her before he made her…. you can either be a nigger or white trash, what would she have said?” (O’Conner 454). This question, although an imaginary one, disturbs Mrs. Turpin. She’d rather “wait until there’s another place available” (494). As a woman of moderately high social standing, she has a high regard for herself, and most certainly a need to segregate everyone around her based on their own social demographic. Mrs. Turpin judges each person in the room. From “the white trash”(419) family to the acne-ridden “ugly girl”(453), Mary Grace. The same girl who later would send Mrs. Turpin into the search for her own

The women of the late sixties, although some are older than others, in Alice Walker’s fiction that exhibit the qualities of the developing, emergent model are greatly influenced through the era of the Civil Rights Movement. Motherhood is a major theme in modern women’s literature, which examines as a sacred, powerful, and spiritual component of the woman’s life. Alice Walker does not choose Southern black women to be her major protagonists only because she is one, but because she had discovered in the tradition and history they collectively experience an understanding of oppression that has been drawn from them a willingness to reject the principle and to hold what is difficult. Walker’s most developed character, Meridian, is a person