Revelation

Revelation

  • Submitted By: jwwhite
  • Date Submitted: 03/18/2009 12:06 AM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 1004
  • Page: 5
  • Views: 463

The Theme of Grace in O’Connor’s “Revelation”

Due to a strong Irish- Catholic and southern background and a very religious family and upbringing, Flannery O’Connor believed that people should not be too full of pride. She believed instead that people should be more aware of the world around them, as well as, more critical of themselves, once quoted as saying, “Pay less attention to yourself than to what is outside you and if you must write about yourself, get a good distance away and judge yourself with a stranger’s eyes and a stranger’s severity.” (Lynn 364). She had an apparent disdain for people that held themselves too highly or looked down on others. However, her writing is filled with these kinds of characters repeatedly receiving a “chance for salvation”, or “moment of grace”. This occurrence gives the characters an opportunity to change themselves and make their lives better, or continue living in the same fashion. One of the best examples of a “moment of grace” occurs in her appropriately titled short story “Revelation”.
Ruby Turpin, the main character in “Revelation”, seems to be the embodiment of everything O’Connor believes a person should not be. Within just a few minutes if entering the doctor’s office, she has already labeled everyone in the room to what she feels is their appropriate “class” and measured them against herself. She points out the rude child in the “dirty blue romper” and the “fat, ugly” girl with acne and even notices what kind of shoes everyone has on (Lynn). All of these things draw the reader’s attention to how arrogant and self- righteous Ruby Turpin actually is. She constantly judges people based on outward appearance, mostly race, the type of clothes that they are wearing and their material possessions, or lack thereof. The description of how she spends her nights organizing the classes of people in her head, “On the bottom of the heap were most colored people, not the kind she would have been if she had been...

Similar Essays