"Revelation"

My Reflections on “Revelation” by Flannery O’Conner

     In the story, “Revelation,” Mrs. Turpin is a woman with many discriminating views. Mrs. Turpin seems to look down on everyone in the doctor’s office waiting room setting in the story. Mrs. Turpin claims to be a Godly woman, but her thoughts seem to be very prejudiced. She also judges everyone and makes assumptions about their character from their shoes as well. The descriptions of the characters in the waiting room do seem to be unsavory. Mrs. Turpin doesn’t mind the pigs at her home, but is bothered by unsavory characters in the story and feels she must let them know how she lives her life. 

     The girl in the waiting room obviously has a problem with Mrs. Turpin. The situation in the waiting room area seems to get very intense as the story builds.  The longer Mrs. Turpin talks, it seems the girl gets more agitated.  I didn’t expect the girl to jump up and choke Mrs. Turpin. Maybe the girl didn’t like the condescending works spoken by Mrs. Turpin. Maybe the girl was a little mentally disturbed or has anger management problems as well.

     Mrs. Turpin seemed to be highly disturbed by the girl calling her an old wart hog from hell. She even mentions it to the workers. When they tell her she isn’t such a thing, she doesn’t hold their opinion very high as she feels they are beneath her as well. Although Mrs. Turpin looked down on others and felt she was better, she didn’t find anything wrong with that behavior. Mrs. Turpin is very puzzled and can’t seem to figure out how she be called such an undesirable  thing. She thinks her kind treatment of those she looks down upon makes up for her discriminating views of them. It is hard for Mrs. Turpin to accept that someone could think low of her.