Perspective Reading
"Revelation"
- Flannery O'Connor
This story begins with a woman, Mrs. Turpin, and her husband in a Doctor's waiting room. Mrs. Turpin looks around the room and judges them by appearance. Mrs. Turpin soon gets into a conversation about sending black people "back to Africa" with another woman in the waiting room. This topic of conversation is not enjoyed by everyone as a teenage girl, Mary Grace, keeps looking at Mrs. Turpin with hostility. Mrs. Turpin eventually sets Mary Grace over the edge when she thanks Jesus for who she is. Mary Grace physically attacks Mrs. Turpin and calls her "a hog from hell (389)." Mrs. Turpin, frustrated, goes home with her husband. Mrs. Turin cannot get over what Mary Grace said to her so she demands an answer from God. She is then shown a vision of of the people whom she deemed unequal to her ascending into heaven. And people such as herself were having, "virtues were being burned away (394)." Mrs. Turpin then realizes she has been wrong in her judgments of people.
- Reading of "Revelation" by Flannery O'Connor
"Revelation" - Flannery O'Connor (381-395)
Choose an O'Connor story, and explain how grace
- the divine influence from God that redeems a person - is used in it to
transform a character.
The O'Connor story that best demonstrates how grace and divine influence can transform a character is the story "Revelation." In this story, we see a woman, Mrs. Turpin, states her racist views to anyone who will listen. At the end of the story, however, Mrs. Turpin is shown a vision from God, "A visionary light settled from the earth through a field of living fire (394)." In this vision, Mrs. Turpin sees the people she considered lesser than her ascending to heaven. She also saw people like her, "Yet she could see by their shocked and altered faces that even their virtues were being burned away (394)." Mrs. Turpin then realizes she has been wrong in her understanding of people. Here, divine influence transformed Mrs. Turpin.