Revelation - Flannery O'Connor

Revelation by Flannery O'Connor is narrated in the third person. The main character in the story is a woman named Mrs. Turpin who firmly believes that people such as herself are superior to other people. If you have read any of Flannery O'Connor's other stories, then you know that this is the type of character who is usually punished in O'Connor's fiction. O'Connor spells out Mrs. Turpin's hypocritical worldview in the following way:

"There was nothing you could tell her about people like them that she didn't already know. And it was not just that they didn't have anything. Because if you gave tehm everything, in two weeks it would all be broke nor filthy or they would have chopped it up for lightwood. She knew all this from her own experience. Help them you must, but help them you couldn't."

Mrs. Turpin is an expert at finding reasons to think that other people are less than her. The Christian sentiment that it is important to help those less fortunate than oneself is undercut by Mrs. Turpin's theory that the less fortunate people of the world are beyond help due to their nature. This idea is fundamental to Mrs. Turpin's worldview.

The most entertaining portion of this story occurs when Mrs. Turpin is attacked by a young lady while sitting in a doctor's waiting room. The lady calls Mrs. Turpin a "wart hog from hell" before she is escorted away by security. This insult shakes Mrs. Turpin down to the core. When she's back at home, it is all she can think about. She is utterly unable to understand how anyone could see her as a "wart hog from hell" because she sees herself as an embodiment of God's chosen people. Later on Mrs. Turpin is washing down the hogs at home when she has a holy hallucination that brings home the main point of the story:

"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 and 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."

This vision suggests that all are equal in the eyes of God since all classes of people can be seen walking towards heaven. The fact that Mrs. Turpin sees people like herself at the end of the procession may suggest that she is the last to get in to heaven. It's surprisingly difficult to interpret this final vision of the story because it doesn't cater to the reader's expectations. We expect Mrs. Turpin to finally understand that everyone is equal and that she has lived a life of unjustified superiority. What Mrs. Turpin is unable to understand is why the people whom she perceives as less worthy than herself are just as entitled to heaven.

This ending is too religious for me. I am culturally Jewish but I have never been religious in the sense that I believe in a literal God or afterlife. This is what makes reading O'Connor's stories difficult for me. Its hard to put myself in the shoes of anyone who makes religion the first priority in their life. I don't have anything against religion or religious people but most of the time I don't really see a difference between religion and brainwashing. So when characters in a story have religious visions without the aid of hallucinogenic drugs, I get a little annoyed because it reminds me that what I am reading is ultimately one person's view of how the world works. Stories such as "good country people" and "A Good Man is hard to find" are some of my favorites stories ever, but I can't help but think of Flannery O'Connor as someone who watches Fox News and takes it as fact.

If you want to read someone else's thoughts on "Revelation" check out this post from the Sitting Bee, a site that I hope will one day be talked about in the same conversation as Short Fiction Daily.

As always thank you reading and feel free to leave your thoughts in a comment below. Also check out some of my other posts on Flannery O'Connor stories that I have enjoyed a lot more than this one.

Related Posts:

• Flannery O'Connor - The Turkey
• Flannery O'Connor - The Barber

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"The Chameleon" by Chekhov

Summary and Analysis

"The Chamelon" is one of Chekhov's shorter stories at a length of nearly four pages but that doesn't make the story any less compelling. In classic Chekhov fashion, "The Chameleon" expresses a deep truth about human behavior in a detailed setting. The title refers to a police officer named Ochumelov (Russian for wacky) who changes his mind several times about how to act in a situation where he doesn't know all the facts.

At first Ochumelov is tempted to side with the man whose finger was bitten in part because the situation seems trivial and Ochumelov wants to dispense justice because it seems like a rational decision. When a member of a crowd yells that the dog belongs to a general, Ochumelov in turn assumes that the bitten man deserves all of the blame. Chekhov ends the story by revealing that the dog belongs to a general's brother. This reveal allows Ochumelov to settle on a decision to rescue the dog and punish the injured man.

The moral of this story is fairly easy to deduce. People change their behavior to suit their own needs regardless of how it affects others. When you really think about it, this is a sad lesson to learn. People will behave this way even in situations that with low stakes. The story's tension comes from the mystery of what really happened and the reader's uncertainty as to what will happen to the various characters in the story. Thankfully Chekhov lets us off the hook by allowing the dog to be saved and ending the story before the injured man can be further punished.

I'm curious as to whether Chekhov wrote this story as an allegory. My translation includes asterisks that reveal meanings behind the characters' names but these meanings seem to serve a comical function rather than an ethical one. I would say this is the most comedic Chekhov story I have read to date. Touches like a crowd appearing out of nowhere and Ochumelov's subtle facial expressions make this story feel like a cartoon. Chekhov realizes the humor in his stories even when the subject matter is quite dark.

A Borzoi, the type of dog appearing in "The Chameleon"

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"About Love" by Anton Chekhov

“About Love” by Chekhov begins with three characters discussing the nature of love. One of these characters named Alyohin states that love is a “great mystery” that consists of “questions that have remained unanswered.” Alyohin uses this discussion as an opportunity to tell a story about his experience of love.             

The way the story begins is made by Chekhov to seem arbitrary. The character could have just as easily been discussing the nature of hate rather than love. This is simply how the characters in the story choose to pass the time. I’m uncertain what this adds to the story other than a frame but it’s an interesting technique nonetheless.

Alyohin’s story is about a relationship with another man’s wife named Anna Alexeyevna. Alyohin and Anna are truly in love with each yet they are unable to spend a lot of time together because of Anna’s marriage. Instead of giving in to their love for each other, Anna and Alyohin accept the circumstances that prevent them from being together even though their hearts say otherwise. It’s essentially the story of a forbidden love where both characters never act upon their desires to truly be together.

The story ends with Alyohin finally being able to confess his love to Anna when she is on the verge of being taken away to Crimea. In this moment Alyohin realizes the stupidity of not confessing his love earlier. This final moment speaks to the idea that once love is recognized, it should be acted upon immediately with an utter disregard for rationality.

This concludes Alyohin’s story. The focus then zooms back out to the three men sitting together in the rain. Each man is familiar with Anna so they all feel the sadness of Alyohin’s story. The rain also stops during Alyohin’s story to reveal a fine view of a garden and river. This adds some happiness to a story that is primarily concerned with Alyohin’s unfulfilled love.

The genius of this story is that it exists in a trilogy with two other stories. The proper way to analyze such a story requires a discussion of how the stories relate to each other. I look forward to rereading the other stories in this trilogy and engaging in a discussion of how they relate to each other on this blog.

Love is such a powerful emotion that it is difficult to come away from such an experience not feeling regret. “About Love” advocates behaving irrationally in any situation involving true love. Some attention should be given to the opposite of this argument: that one should also act rationally in a situation involving love. While Alyohin’s story is obviously tragic, his decision to see it as regretful years after it happens is a personal choice. He could just as easily choose to focus on the moments of happiness he experienced with Anna. There is a reason he chose to behave with rationality.

I wonder how one should respond after someone tells the most emotionally devastating story of their life. Perhaps the best response is a silent acknowledgement of the devastation followed by a subtle change in the topic of conversation. 

Also today I read a fascinating post dealing with a connection between Chekhov and George Saunders. Since I am currently reading Chekhov and I have written a fairly popular post on Saunders' story "Puppy" I instantly gobbled up the post with my eyes and brain. I recommend you do the same if you are interested in either author's work. 

As always, thank you for reading and may your love life consist of unanswered questions.

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Vanka by Chekhov - Expressing Humanity through Words on a Page

Today on the blog I am excited to write about Anton Chekhov’s story Vanka. Coming in at five pages, it is incredible how much impact this story has at such a short length. The story is hyper focused on a young boy’s tragic predicament as an apprentice shoemaker under abusive and awful circumstances. The story takes place over one night when the young boy Vanka secretly writes a letter to his grandfather who Vanka remembers in tragic detail.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of Chekhov’s style is his knack for description. It pretty great when you get a sentence like this: “The entire sky is studded with gaily twinkling stars and the Milky Way is as distinctly visible as though it had been washed and rubbed with snow for the holidays.” This sentence is meant to show the clarity and ideal nature of Vanka’s memories of his grandfather. Because Vanka’s life is so awful, it is easy to envision a better life. Vanka is also quite young so he has not had a great deal of formative memories yet. What makes Vanka unable to deal with his current predicament is the fact that he has experienced a better life. The abuse he suffers at the hands of his guardians is utterly abhorrent.

Chekhov is a master of the short story form. As a doctor he mined material for his stories from the many patients he treated. Chekhov’s vocation allowed him to understand the human condition by learning about the lives of many different people. This is why characters in Chekhov’s stories seem so realistic. Every character in Chekhov’s fiction is likely based on a real-life person. This allows Chekhov’s work to serve an important function – it provides readers a mirror with which to base their own lives upon. Chekhov’s work is universal. At some level, all of his characters are dealing with a problem that has been experienced by people all over the world. Vanka’s experience represents the experiences of suffering children through history.

All of Vanka’s attributes are universal. The way looks at the door before writing, how he sighs after remembering a happy moment with his grandfather, the fact that he lacks the knowledge of how to properly address his oh so important letter. These qualities speak so much about this character and his experiences in the world. What makes this story so tragic is the humanity that is expressed through words on a page. Chekhov is arguably the best at pulling this off.

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Offloading for Mrs. Schwartz

Today I am writing about one of George Saunders' lesser known stories "Offloading for Mrs. Schwartz" which is the fifth story in the collection CivilWarLand in Bad Decline. Like most of the stories in this collection, this story focuses on someone who hates their job working a strange company. Saunders uses this premise so much because its easy for people reading to relate to it since pretty much everyone has worked a job they didn't like.

In this case the strange company's business is interactive personal holography. People pay to enter a virtual reality in a process that involves treadmills and headsets. The specifics of how this futuristic process works are not explained in detail because that is not what Saunders thinks is important. Saunders chooses to focus instead on the grieving process of the main character who lost his wife. The strange futuristic setting is simply an interesting backdrop that doesn't really factor into the story's core.

The narrator volunteers to help a dying old lady named Mrs. Schwartz who requires a live-in caretaker. The narrator feels it is his responsibility to provide this service for Mrs. Schwartz but unfortunately his virtual reality business doesn't provide him with the necessary money. Towards the end of the story the narrator is held at knife point by a hapless intruder. The narrator knocks the intruder unconscious and accidentally offloads his memories onto a hard drive. When the intruder wakes up he appears happier without the many painful memories he once possessed. This gives the narrator the idea to sell the intruder's memories as virtual experiences for customers and this idea is profitable enough that the narrator can afford to hire a caretaker for Mrs. Schwartz. This idea eventually forces the narrator to offload all of his own memories. The narrator leaves a final note telling himself to take care of Mrs. Schwartz with money that will arrive in the mail.

This is perhaps the least satisfying ending of any George Saunders story I have read. The ending is somewhat tragic because the narrator has sacrificed all of his memories but it also seems happy since the narrator will have a much better life without any memories. The central question of this story is how does memory help us when there are so many negative events to ruminate on. Judging by this story, Saunders seems to believe that memory serves a harmful purpose more often than not and most lives would be better lived if we could start over with a blank mental slate. This is the lesson Saunders hopes to teach us.

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The 400-Pound CEO

The 400-pound CEO is one of my favorite stories from George Saunders' collection CivilWarLand in Bad Decline. Like other stories by Saunders, the 400-pound CEO focuses on a character negative experience in a bizarre workplace. In this case the character is Jeffrey who works at Humane Raccoon Alternatives, a corporation that claims to release troublesome raccoons into the wild but actually kills them.

Jeffrey is frustrated at his lack of love life and his co-workers constantly make fun of him for being so overweight. Jeffrey has feelings for his coworker Freeda who is repulsed by Jeffrey but she accepts Jeffrey's invitation to dinner. Jeffrey and Freeda go out to Ace's Volcano Island, a Hawaiian themed restaurant run by an aging beatnik with Tourette's. It turns out that Freeda only went out with Jeffrey because their coworker Tim agreed to pay Freeda's phone bill. In response to this humiliation, Jeffrey goes on vacation for a week and does nothing but play a game called Oil Can Man. When Jeffrey returns to work, his life continues to consist of boring work, self-loathing and humiliating jokes about his weight.

While attempting to stop his evil boss Tim from attacking an animal rights girl with a camcorder, Jeffrey inadvertently kills him. In the moments after this event, Jeffrey realizes that his biggest concern in life is not lofty ideals but himself. Jeffrey then forges a letter in which Tim says that he is moving to Mexico and Jeffrey is the new CEO. Jeffrey's reign as the CEO is short-lived when his co-worker Claude discover's Tim's dead body. Jeffrey is arrested and sentenced to fifty years in prison where he continues to be humiliated but Jeffrey somehow refuses to give up his dignity.

One of my favorite things about Saunders' stories is how they combine funny and dark elements. It's a testament to Saunders' ability as a writer that this story can inspire such different reactions at different points. Reading about Jeffrey's struggles will most likely make you feel grateful for how much better your life is and that is quite the feat on Saunders part. By providing a glimpse into one of the saddest and most unfortunate people on Earth, Saunders, I believe, wants to make people feel better about their own lives.

At the end of this story, Jeffrey entertains the possibility that his life could restart if a benevolent higher power were to assume responsibility for his tragic life. This is the darkest moment of the story since we know that Jeffrey's life will never change unless he himself takes action. This moment speaks to Jeffrey's persistent ability to think that his life will get better. This ability is what enables Jeffrey to continue working even though his job sucks and his coworkers treat him like human garbage. The problem is that Jeffrey's life at the end of the story story is awful since he is serving a 50 year sentence for murdering Tim. When your life is really tedious and unfulfilling, you should maybe try something other than hoping that a higher power will fix your life.

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