Summary Of Revelation By Flannery O Connor

In “Revelation” by Flannery O’Connor, she uses a character named Mary Grace to envoke a change in Ruby Turpin. O’Connor used violence to allow her, as the writer, to be able to create the right situation for her character (s) to make the critical change:

We hear many complaints about the prevalence of violence in modern fiction, and it is always assumed that this violence is bad thing and meant to be an end in itself. With the serious writer, violence is never an end in itself. It is the extreme situation that best reveals what we are essentially, and I believe these are times when writers are more interested in what we are essentially than in the tenor of our daily lives. Violence is a force which can be used for good or evil, and among

In most of O’Connor’s stories “there is a moment of grace…or a moment where it is offered, and usually rejected” (“The Mean Grace of Flannery O’Connor”). These moments of violence can be followed through the colors of bruising. These can also be viewed as “deaths and rebirths,” like in the case of Ruby Turpin. O’Connor not only uses violence to evoke character change, but also spiritual change. She strongly believed that character change is necessary to allow spiritual change to happen. In most of her stories, the main character must have a “revelation,” so that they can be closer to God. Baptism is a similar thing. You must have the death of your old life in order to be baptized and begin your new life: “Baptism is a renewal, yes. Though not because the cool water is refreshing but rather because we die and rise again to live with Christ” ("Flannery O'Connor and the Violence of Christianity”). Flannery O’Conner uses the imagery of bruising to show the death of Ruby Turpin’s pride and the birth of her

In order for her to receive her moment of grace, her idea of her own “good disposition” had to die. She claims that she is a respectable woman. But when she arrived at the doctor’s office with Claud, no one rose to give her a seat. Everyone just sat and ignored her, except for the “pleasant lady.” She also claims that she is a hard-working woman. Claud, her husband, was kicked by a cow, hence why they went to the doctor. Why was it not her who was kicked? Why was she not out working with her husband if she is a “hard-working” woman? And what she views as her “work” is usually a common courtesy. Her vision of work is to get her “red plastic bucket” and bring ice water to the African-American workers who had been working out in the fields all day (366). Also, instead of going out and helping the workers, she stays inside and takes a nap when she could have been out helping them get the work done. She even might have been able to not have as many workers. Her final claim is that she is a churchgoing woman. But a good Christian is humble. She says that she would “occupy herself at night naming the classes of people” and she “always notices people’s feet” (355-356). The ironic thing is that she is almost always at or near the top, which isn’t very humble. A good Christian is also helpful. She prides herself on the claim of her