Revelation

In September 1953, finally overcoming the writer’s block that had been stagnating work on her third novel, Flannery O’Connor wrote “Revelation,” the seventh story in her posthumous second collection, Everything That Rises Must Converge, after waiting for an appointment with Dr. Fulghum, whose office was located a few blocks away from Baldwin County Hospital on the outskirts of Milledgeville. According to biographer Brad Gooch, “in [Dr. Fulghum’s] cramped, twelve-by-twelve reception room, with chairs set along the walls, and dominated by a sunburst wall clock, she began gathering impressions of country types and their small talk felt like a story to her” (353), a story that produced the popular Ruby Turpin. Maryat Lee, O’Connor’s close friend, inspired Mary Grace, Mrs. Turpin’s nemesis, after telling O’Connor a story from her childhood where “in the 6th grade, I threw a book ostensibly at a boy who ducked and it hit my detested teacher” (354). O’Connor wrote “Revelation” in only eight weeks, and the story received immensely positive feedback from her circle of literary friends. For instance, in recollecting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s televised “I Have a Dream” speech the previous month, O’Connor’s friend Catherine Carver commented that “Revelation” was O’Connor’s most powerful illustration of racial convergence. From O’Connor’s desire to maintain loyalty to Andrew Lytle, her teacher from Iowa and the publisher of the Sewanee Review, O’Connor submitted the story to Lytle, who published it in the magazine’s spring 1964 issue. The story went on to win a first place O’Henry Award and was published in Prize Stories 1965: The O’Henry Awards.

In the words of critics E.P. Walkiewicz and Ralph C. Wood respectively, literary scholars revere “Revelation” as “one of her best stories” (67) and “O’Connor’s most winsome story” (261), which has led to ample consideration of “Revelation” by scholars, including reflection on the story’s Christian implications that match O’Connor’s messages in many of her other stories. Specifically in “Revelation,” O’Connor reveals Ruby Turpin’s misconceptions about Christian doctrine in order to elevate the Bible and emphasize God’s way, ultimately distinguishing for readers the ways of the world versus what O’Connor believes to be the right ways of God. O’Connor first shows that Mrs. Turpin’s misconceptions about the Bible result in her classism, racism, and selfish pride in helping others. Mrs. Turpin demonstrates her deep classism when “sometimes [she] occupied herself at night naming the classes of people,” dividing them into “most colored people” on “the bottom of the heap,” then “white-trash,” then homeowners and home- and land-owners, “to which she and Claud belonged,” and finally “people with a lot of money and much bigger houses and much more land” at the top (“Revelation,” 491). Literary scholar Bryan Giemza points out that, “for whites generally in the South, the mere fact of being white conferred at least one measure of human superiority” (172). Mrs. Turpin also expresses profound racism when she comments that “you can’t get the white folks to pick [cotton] and now you can’t get the niggers – because they got to be right up there with the white folks” (“Revelation,” 493). Later, Mrs. Turpin concludes that “you could never say anything intelligent to a nigger. You could talk to them but not with them” (505). Furthermore, Mrs. Turpin demonstrates extreme pride in her selfish desire to help others when she remarks that “she never spared herself when she found somebody in need, whether they were white or black, trash or decent. And of all she had to be thankful for, she was most thankful that this was so” (497). Ultimately, O’Connor immediately establishes Mrs. Turpin’s profound classism, racism, and selfish pride.

The Bible openly critiques the biases Mrs. Turpin holds. For instance, Paul explains in his letter to the Galatians that, under Jesus’s new leadership of the church, “there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ” (Gal. 3.28 NLT), which undermines Mrs. Turpin’s classism and racism. Paul continues that “Jews and Gentiles are the same” because “they have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him” (Rom. 10.12 NLT), meaning that God disregards the earthly constructs of class and race. In terms of Mrs. Turpin’s continual and detrimental classification of people into groups, the Bible instructs that people should “not judge by appearances, but [should] judge with right judgement” (John 7.24 ESV), because “if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law” (James 2.9 NLT). Additionally, the Bible condemns Mrs. Turpin’s desire to help others that grows out of her selfish pride when Paul demands people to “not be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too” (Phil. 2.3-4 NLT). Similarly, Jesus instructs his followers to “give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you” (Matt. 6.4 NLT), which condemns boasting about charity. Paul concludes, “Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all!” (Rom. 12.16 NLT). Ultimately, then, the Bible denounces Mrs. Turpin’s classism and racism and argues that God rejects earthly constructs, as well as her selfish pride in helping others, noting that helping others requires selflessness.

Specifically, Mary Grace, as the story’s Jesus-figure, supplies Mrs. Turpin’s condemning revelation that leads to her vision in the story’s conclusion. Wood notes that “Mary Grace is not an echo of either the Virgin Mary or any of the Marys who are central to Jesus’s ministry” (262). Instead, Mary Grace first parallels herself to Jesus through her continual gaze on Mrs. Turpin in the waiting room, where Mary Grace’s “eyes were fixed on Mrs. Turpin as if she had some very special reason for disliking her” (“Revelation,” 493). Mrs. Turpin draws the connection between Mary Grace and Jesus when Mrs. Turpin reflects that Mary Grace “was looking at her as if she had known and disliked her all her life – all of Mrs. Turpin’s life, it seemed too, not just all the girl’s life. Why, girl, I don’t even know you, Mrs. Turpin said silently” (495). The Bible asserts that Jesus and God personally know all human beings, regardless of whether people know them. For example, Jesus explains to his followers that “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me” (John 10.14 NLT). King David also writes that God “know[s] everything about me” (Ps. 139.1 NLT), that God “know[s] everything I do” (Ps. 139.3 NLT), and that God “saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed” (Ps. 139.16 NLT). Jesus adds that God has even numbered “the hairs on your head” (Matt. 10.30 ESV). Therefore, Mary Grace’s stare that makes Mrs. Turpin feel as though Mary Grace understands more than she should about Mrs. Turpin supports Mary Grace’s echo of Jesus.

Mrs. Turpin continually insinuates that Jesus’s teachings support her corrupt biases, which outrages Mary Grace. After exclaiming, “Oh thank you, Jesus, Jesus, thank you!” (“Revelation,” 499), which firmly ties Mrs. Turpin’s biases to Jesus, Mary Grace furiously throws Human Development across the waiting room at Mrs. Turpin. Literary critic Gary L. Kriewald notes that “in the short span of time before she is struck on the head by Mary Grace’s book, Ruby has shown herself to be bigoted, hypocritical, judgmental, complacent, callous, and morally benighted” (5). Therefore, Mary Grace’s act of judgement in throwing the book parallels herself to Jesus, as the book strikes “directly over [Mrs. Turpin’s] left eye” (499), causing a “forced visual awakening,” according to critic Julie Brown Smith, that targets “[Mrs. Turpin’s] spiritual vision” (231-232). As a result, Mary Grace’s condemning revelation, where she tells Mrs. Turpin to “go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog” (“Revelation,” 500), startlingly alerts Mrs. Turpin for the first time to the discrepancies between her ways and God’s ways articulated in the Bible. Mrs. Turpin concludes that “there was no doubt in her mind that the girl did know her, knew her in some intense and personal way, beyond time and place and condition” (500), which further connects Mary Grace to Jesus. Even though “the message had been given to Ruby Turpin, a respectable, hard-working, church-going woman” (502), and despite her denial, Mrs. Turpin reveals the impact of Mary Grace’s words that make her feel “entirely hollow except for her heart which swung from side to side as if it were agitated in a great empty drum of flesh” (500). Mrs. Turpin’s agitation of the heart evokes the message God gives the prophet Samuel: “The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16.7 NLT). Therefore, through Mary Grace’s parallel to Jesus, she supplies the revelation that alerts Mrs. Turpin to her sinful ways and anticipates her vision.

In addition, the Bible’s negative view toward pigs demonstrates the depth of Mary Grace’s condemnation in calling Mrs. Turpin a “wart hog” from “hell” (“Revelation,” 500). For example, Old Testament law forbids the Israelites from consuming pigs. God instructs that the pig “is unclean to you. You shall not eat any of [its] flesh, and you shall not touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you” (Lev. 11.7-8 ESV). God also declares that those who feast “on pork [...] will come to a terrible end” (Isa. 66.17 NLT). Similarly, Jesus negatively discusses pigs during his ministry, instructing his followers to not “waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you” (Matt. 7.6 NLT), thereby comparing unholy people to pigs in the same way that Mary Grace targets Mrs. Turpin’s sinful nature by calling her a wart hog. Later, Jesus removes many demons from a man when he gives the demons permission to enter a herd of pigs. After Jesus rebukes the demons, they “came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the entire herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned” (Luke 8.33 NLT). Therefore, the Bible describes pigs as unclean, associates them with demons, and captures the need to eradicate pigs.

Mrs. Turpin’s vision in the story’s conclusion fulfills O’Connor’s purpose in revealing God’s ways and elevating the Bible. Mrs. Turpin shouts at God when she asks, “‘Why me?’ she rumbled. ‘It’s no trash around here, black or white, that I haven’t given to. And break my back to the bone every day working. And do for the church.’ She appeared to be the right size woman to command the arena before her. ‘How am I a hog?’ she demanded. ‘Exactly how am I like them?’” (“Revelation,” 507). Mrs. Turpin’s audacity to shout at God results in a vision that encompasses the answers to her demanding questions:

A visionary light settled in her eyes. She saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. Upon it a vast horde of souls were rumbling toward 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 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. [...] Yet she could see by their shocked and altered faces that even their virtues were being burned away. (508)

Mrs. Turpin’s vision ultimately shows her the differences between God’s ways, which do not include racism, classism, and selfish pride, and her own ways, thereby revealing Mrs. Turpin’s Biblical misconceptions. Wood explains that Mrs. Turpin “is made to see things as God sees them” and so “her pride of place and position is being purged” (264). Scholar Robert H. Brinkmeyer offers that, as a result, “human pretensions are not merely undercut but utterly destroyed; they are shown to be worthless and insignificant if not terribly evil” (57) by Biblical doctrine. In this way, Mrs. Turpin’s vision evokes numerous Biblical passages that reveal the extent of the discrepancy between her views and God’s views. Paul demonstrates that Jesus’s ministry achieves the equality of souls presented in Mrs. Turpin’s vision by explaining that “you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes” (Gal. 3.26-27 NLT). Again, Paul explains that God “made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross” (Col. 1.20 NLT). Therefore, the Bible condemns Mrs. Turpin by revealing the contradictions between her earthly ways and God’s ways, which emphasize equality.

This vision ultimately provokes at least some spiritual change in Mrs. Turpin. As she leaves the pigpen, Mrs. Turpin hears “in the woods around her the invisible cricket choruses” not projecting cricket song but “the voices of the souls climbing upward into the starry field and shouting hallelujah” (“Revelation,” 509). Critics Margaret Earley Whitt and Timothy P. Caron respectively point out that, as Mrs. Turpin walks home, “earthly possessions and Southern status yield to a humbling spiritual insight” (150) as a result of recognizing that she “will have to share her heaven with those whom she previously considered to be unworthy of inclusion” (154). Critic Davis J. Leigh concludes that, as a result, “Mrs. Turpin not only realizes where she stands in God’s view of the world, but also takes her first step away from her proud self-love toward a humble love of others” (374). For instance, Peter emphasizes humility in helping others when he explains that people should serve others “not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God” (1 Pet. 5.2 NLT). Mrs. Turpin’s spiritual awakening echoes Jesus’s explanation to his disciples that they “will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth” (John 1.51 NLT). Mrs. Turpin’s vision thus conveys O’Connor’s message in elevating the Bible and the ways of God.

Ultimately, “Revelation” captures the magnitude of the Christian-focused message O’Connor distinctively communicates across her collective work. Walkiewicz concludes that, specifically in “Revelation,” all the people in the doctor’s office “may be viewed as something close to a metaphor for the world of [O’Connor’s] fiction in which all are ill, all are patients awaiting cure” (67). O’Connor fiction, therefore, responds to Jesus’s reply when the Pharisees critique him for spending time with sinners: “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. [...] For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners” (Matt. 9.12-13 NLT). Therefore, O’Connor’s fiction elevates a Christian message for a wide collection of readers to whom she feels she must minister. Writer Joyce Carol Oates explains that, very simply, it is O’Connor, “through Mary Grace, who throws the textbook on human development at all of us, striking us in the forehead, hopefully to bring about a change in our lives” (51). Similarly, critic John R. May recognizes that O’Connor potentially understands that “the encounter with mystery and its potential for effecting change in us comes invariably through others” (212). Therefore, O’Connor uses not only “Revelation” but samples throughout her collective work to reveal the mystery of Christianity with the hope of effecting change in readers. As such, O’Connor’s stories, including “Revelation,” exalt and dignify for readers the ways of God presented in the Bible as well as Christian doctrine as a whole.

Works Cited

Brinkmeyer, Robert H., Jr. The Art and Vision of Flannery O’Connor. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State UP, 1993.

Caron, Timothy P. “‘The Bottom Rail Is on the Top’: Race and ‘Theological Whiteness’ in Flannery O’Connor’s Short Fiction.” Inside the Church of Flannery O’Connor: Sacrament, Sacramental, and the Sacred in Her Fiction, edited by Joanne Halleran McMullen and Jon Parrish Peede, Mercer UP, 2007, pp. 138-64.

ESV Study Bible: English Standard Version. Translated by Crossway, ESV text ed., Wheaton, Crossway Bibles, 2011.

Giemza, Bryan. Irish Catholic Writers and the Invention of the American South. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State UP, 2013.

Gooch, Brad. Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor. New York, Little, Brown, 2009.

Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Translated by Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Tyndale House Publishers, 2015.

Kriewald, Gary L. “A Virtuous Woman Is Hard to Find: Notes on a Possible Source for Ruby Turpin.” Flannery O’Connor Review, vol. 14, 2016, pp. 1-7. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26671321.

Leigh, Davis J. “Suffering and the Sacred in Flannery O’Connor's Short Stories.” Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature, vol. 65, no. 5, fall 2013, pp. 365-79. MLA International Bibliography.

May, John R. “Flannery O’Connor and the Discernment of Catholic Fiction.” Inside the Church of Flannery O’Connor: Sacrament, Sacramental, and the Sacred in Her Fiction, edited by Joanne Halleran McMullen and Jon Parrish Peede, Mercer UP, 2007, pp. 205-20.

Oates, Joyce Carol. “The Visionary Art of Flannery O’Connor.” Modern Critical Views: Flannery O’Connor, edited by Harold Bloom, New York City, Chelsea House Publishers, 1986, pp. 43-54.

O’Connor, Flannery. “Revelation.” The Complete Stories, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1971, pp. 488-509.

Smith, Julie Brown. “Eye Symbolism in Flannery O’Connor’s ‘Revelation.’” The Explicator, vol. 70, no. 3, summer-fall 2012, pp. 231-33. MLA International Bibliography, https://doi.org/10.1080/00144940.2012.703707.

Walkiewicz, E. P. “1957-1968: Toward Diversity of Form.” The American Short Story, 1945-1980: A Critical History, edited by Gordon Weaver, Twayne Publishers, 1983, pp. 35-76.

Whitt, Margaret Earley. Understanding Flannery O’Connor. Columbia, U of South Carolina P, 1997.

Wood, Ralph C. Flannery O’Connor and the Christ-Haunted South. Grand Rapids (Michigan), W.B. Eerdmans Publ., 2005.