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 Barber"

"It is trying on liberals in Dilton".

So begins Flannery O'Connor's story "The Barber". O'Conner lived in the South during the first half of the twentieth century. A time when African Americans were denied many basic rights. This story focuses on why a college professor named Rayber decides to change barbers. Rayber, being an educated man, believes in racial equality and supports a progressive political candidate by the name of Darmon. Rayber's barber supports a candidate named Hawkson who never changes his speeches that appeal to the prejudices of lower class Whites.

In the beginning Rayber is caught off guard when his barber asks him the brutally honest question: "You a nigger-lover?". Racial equality is a black and white issue for the barber. In his mind you're either with him or against him. There's no room for in-betweens or any other perspectives. Rayber on the other hand sees a more complex issue. He identifies as neither a Negro- no a white-lover and assures the barber that he would readily accept both blacks and white in his classroom.


In this story the reader gets some interiority but not enough to make definitive conclusions about the characters. While the barber and his friend seem simple-minded, it's possible that they are more attuned to the political climate than they let on. It's easy for me to understand Rayber's dilemma. He's a teacher and he wants to enlighten people although he has no idea how to do this. Instead of speaking his mind directly and confidently, Rayber suppresses what he wants to say because he this that his audience won't understand. Rayber makes assumptions about how his audience will react when he really has no idea. So rayber writes a paper that he thinks will convert the barber once read aloud in the barber's shop.

Irony arises when Rayber enters the shop the next day and the barber wants to talk about hunting. To Rayber this situation is a symbolic of a larger societal problem. If he can convince one ignorant barber to vote for Darmon, maybe not all is lost for the South. When Rayber finishes reading his paper in the barbershop, his audience laughs and no one is inclined to change their mind. Not even the colored boy George who understands the social dynamic better than anyone in the shop. In the end Rayber punches the barber out of frustration and storms out of the shop with lather still on his face and an apron billowing behind him like a cape. A comical image of someone who has let things go way too far.

"The Barber" is my favorite O'Conner story so far. Its a simple story in terms of plot but O'Conner makes it rich and compelling with her use of language. It's a pleasure to read O'Conner's writing because it demonstrates a keen eye for detail and a deep understanding of human psychology. More posts about O'Conner's stories on the way.

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