Revelation

3 Pages 696 Words

“Revelations” by Flannery O’Conner is the story of Ruby Turpin’s journey towards the revelation depicting the reality she had not come to grips with. The main character, Mrs. Turpin, doesn’t think twice before judging people, yet, when she herself is judged she is astounded and stunned. “I haven’t done anything to you. [Girl who judged Turpin].” (396), Mrs. Turpin thinks to herself, without realizing that she too judges before the victims get a chance to prove themselves. Then, when the hired help tells her that nothing bad has happened, you just had a little fall, it almost satires the fact that Turpin thought she had taken a fall comparative to an over exaggerated plummet towards death. The comment’s suggestive language, implies that the incident was not a “bad” thing but a vital revelation.
The character Turpin’s life is run solely by her own ego. In fact, her hobby is to classify others according to her standards of acceptability; placing them in her foreseen categories. Turpin clings to her good works and her social class as a insignia of her merit; separating herself as a dignified being from blacks, poor white trash, freaks, and lunatics. When the tables turn, and Mrs. Turpin becomes the subject of judgment, she is thrown from her perch of judgment, and placed in a vulnerable position. The fat girl with acne, that had been idly sitting beside Mrs. Turpin in the doctor’s waiting room, seemed to have had enough of Mrs. Turpin’s attitude. She violently threw her book at Mrs. Turpin, and then attempts to strangle the life out of her as well. Then the girl looked directly into the eyes of Mrs. Turpin and said, “Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog”(402).
Mrs. Turpin is horrified by this comment, and can’t seem to get it off her mind. She feels as if the comment was a blow to her very being; turning her life completely upside down. When she tells her awful story to the black hire...