The Turkey

Flannery O’Connor completed “The Turkey,” the fifth story in her master’s thesis, in the fall of 1946 while at the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. During her years of schooling in Iowa, O’Connor attended mass every morning before spending hours writing. Scholars generally agree that “The Turkey” is, in the words of biographer Brad Gooch, the first time O’Connor addressed “the religious faith that was sustaining her” stories (132). Therefore, while the other stories in her master’s thesis may indirectly reference Christian theology, “The Turkey” speaks directly to religious matters. She submitted it to Mademoiselle, who accepted the story and published it in their November 1948 issue, titling it “The Capture” instead of “The Turkey.” Later, in 1961, “The Turkey” was reprinted by Mademoiselle in their collection Best Stories from Mademoiselle.

Scholar Margaret Earley Whitt supposes that “The Turkey” narrates Ruller McFarney’s “first personal experience with God and his own movement [away] from innocent, unusual child” (215). Ruller, an eleven-year-old boy, transitions to considering a divine presence in his situation with the turkey when it first escapes him and he remarks that “it was like somebody had played a dirty trick on him” (O’Connor 45). In the midst of Ruller shouting childlike profanities, such as “‘God dammit to hell, good Lord from Jerusalem’” (46), Ruller realizes that the “somebody” causing his situation with the turkey is God. As a result, Ruller’s thoughts move in a theological direction as he “suddenly wondered if he were going ‘bad’” (47), considering the teachings of his grandmother and the minister. For instance, Ruller’s grandmother preaches that “the only way to conquer the devil was to fight him” (47), while Ruller also “remembered the minister had said young men were going to the devil by the dozens this day and age; forsaking gentle ways; walking in the tracks of Satan. They would rue the day, he said. There would be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (48). The introduction of God to Ruller’s experience with the turkey as his first encounter with the divine culminates when Ruller, considering why God sent him the turkey, thinks that “maybe God was in the bush now, waiting for him to make up his mind” (49).

The Biblical allusions that surround Ruller’s situation with the turkey support the idea of him having his first encounter with God. For example, Ruller’s grandmother’s instructions to fight Satan potentially stem from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where he urges the people to “put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil” (Eph. 6.11 NLT). And, the minister’s warnings against “walking in the tracks of Satan” resulting in the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (O’Connor 48) refer to numerous Biblical passages dealing with obedience. For instance, people turning away from God is a frequent Biblical occurrence, especially with the Israelites in the Old Testament, to which the prophet Isaiah refers when he writes in God’s voice that “‘the children I raised and cared for have rebelled against me. Even an ox knows its owner, and a donkey recognizes its master’s care — but Israel doesn’t know its master. My people don’t recognize my care for them’” (Isa. 1.2-4 NLT). As a result of disobedience, Jesus repeatedly warns in the New Testament about “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8.12 NLT) in reference to the hardship and pain of Hell. Jesus uses the same language to describe Hell in numerous additional verses, including Matthew 13:14, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30 and Luke 13:28. Finally, Ruller wondering whether God waits for him in a nearby bush evokes images of Moses and the Burning Bush in Exodus, where God tells Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt by calling to him from “a blazing fire [in] the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up” (Ex. 3.2 NLT).

Ruller’s subsequent internal exchange with God characterizes Ruller as a representation of the childlike faith Jesus teaches in the Gospels. Ruller begins the casual discourse with God:

Thank You, he said. Come on, boys, he said, we will take this turkey back for our dinner. We certainly are much obliged to You, he said to God. This turkey weighs ten pounds. You were mighty generous. That’s okay, God said. And listen, we ought to have a talk about these boys. They’re entirely in your hands, see? I’m leaving the job strictly up to you. I have confidence in you, McFarney. You can trust me, Ruller said. I’ll come through with the goods. (O’Connor 49-50)

Ruller not only solidifies the presence of theological influence in “The Turkey” through his internal conversation with God but also offers a representation of childlike faith. For example, in Matthew, as well as in the Gospels of Mark and Luke (Mark 10.14-15; Luke 18.16-17), Jesus instructs the disciples that, “unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 18.3-4 NLT). Ruller begins the development of his childlike faith in respecting the words of his grandmother and the minister, reflecting that he hopes he is not “going ‘bad’” (O’Connor 47). His childlike faith subsequently progresses to an internal exchange with God marked by simple, casual speech, such as God saying, “I’m leaving the job strictly up to you” or Ruller saying “I’ll come through with the goods” (50). Therefore, in terms of O’Connor’s views on Christian faith, Ruller may embody a representation of childlike faith that O’Connor supports and wants readers to consider.

Scholars generally agree, however, based on the “Something Awful” that Ruller fears is chasing him in the last lines of the story, that O’Connor uses Ruller’s character to illuminate common misconceptions regarding Biblical childlike faith and to critique the differences between childlike faith and childlike behavior. Whitt asserts that, through the Something Awful, “O’Connor suggests that God is something full of awe, not to be understood, not to be reduced, not to be anybody’s diminutive pal. God is a mystery that cannot be figured out by a young boy in his afternoon play. Who ‘the turkey’ is at the story’s end shifts to Ruller himself” (217). Whitt condemns Ruller’s childlike disposition not as exemplary of the childlike faith Jesus requests but as foolish and ignorant to the point of disrespecting and diminishing the powerful position of God. Similarly, scholar John Burt adapts this critique of Ruller, arguing that “the ‘Something Awful’ that chases Ruller at the end is clearly just himself” (129). Therefore, Burt demonstrates the Something Awful as a manifestation of the negative characteristics of people, such as the inability to practice childlike humility, that separate people from God. In culmination, essayist George Monteiro proposes that the Something Awful is “the true visitation of [God’s] Grace” (120), in this case, God’s grace as a representation of his divine might, which places him above Ruller instead of on the similar standing Ruller places him in their internal conversation. As a result, O’Connor potentially uses Ruller in “The Turkey” as a character who behaves like a child when interacting with God and faith as opposed to one who demonstrates the childlike faith for which the Bible calls, thereby warning readers to consider their own conduct.

Works Cited

Burt, John. “What You Can't Talk About.” Modern Critical Views: Flannery O'Connor, edited by Harold Bloom, New York City, Chelsea House Publishers, 1986, pp. 125-43.

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.

Monteiro, George. “The Great American Hunt in Flannery O’Connor’s ‘The Turkey.’” The Explicator, vol. 51, no. 2, winter 1993, pp. 118-21. MLA International Bibliography, https://doi.org/10.1080/00144940.1993.9937993.

O'Connor, Flannery. “The Turkey.” The Complete Stories, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1971, pp. 42-53.

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