Symbolism in Flannery O’Connor’s “Revelation”

Flannery OConnor belongs to the school of writing called Ameri burn down mhoern Gothic. Her fiction revolves around people from the S stunnedh and the volatile relationships zymosis in their beau monde. The significance of being a writer from the American South has something to do with the immediate context from which the stories are written. The extent of sla real and racial blemish in the South presents Southern writers with subject matter ranging from racialism to moral decay (Wood 1) Apart from being rooted in what is considered a backwater, Bible-fundamentalist society, OConnors staunch faith in Roman universality also plays a part in her fiction.Many of her works d deliver been read with symbolism of spiritual realities. Martin asserts that the emblematic nature of her work scrapes from the plausibility of her char impressers action or the plenty in which they find themselves, and the meta corporal gist these actions or circumstances take (137). To OConnor, however, h er fiction is not exemplary but sacramental in that the actions, which are often violent, are suckn to be intrusions of gods grace into the physical world (Revel).The ability of OConnor to translate abstract matters such as good, evil, grace, and redemption into a concrete, mundane, and very real scenario infuses her fiction with rich symbolism. The effective use of symbol is deliver in the short story Revelation. Like most of her stories, Revelation is notice in the South, in a little town where ordinary folk live. It is a world familiar to OConnor, having been brought up in Georgia. The jock in the story is Ruby Turpin, a stocky charwoman who has a penchant for thinking about people in relation to her own disposition of righteousness.Along with her husband, Mrs.Turpin is found at the beginning of the story in a clinic postponement path in which she joined several people. Immediately, she surv opticd the room and sized them up according to her own sets of labels a smoc k ice rink woman, a fat, evil-looking teenager, a idyllic woman, and ordinary-looking folks. Not long after, she strikes a conversation with the pleasant woman who turns out to be the mother of the slimed girl. They talk about how important it is to observe propriety and maintain a positive outlook even when they have to deal with niggers. They then trade sentiment about being thankful for whatever paragon has give them.All this time, the painful girl named Mary deck is smirking, obviously get to and furious at the conversation of the two women. The white trash woman, on the other hand, tries to join the conversation by sharing comments which only showed her ignorance. At that point, Mrs. Turpin exclaims, out of a sudden burst of joy, how thankful she is to Jesus that He made things just the way they are, and that she was not somebody else. Then, without warning, Mary embellish throws a book to Mrs. Turpins face and lunges at her with her hands throttling the stout wom ans neck.Appalled by the violent act, Mrs. Turpin demands the ugly girl to explain herself, and with contempt, Mary benignity commands her to return to hell. Mrs. Turpin takes the incident to be a manifestation from God. In her exasperation for not sympathy why God would condemn a virtuous woman like her, she demands God for an explanation. All at once, a strange light reveals to her a spate in which all sorts of abominable people are leading a march to heaven with people like her trailing behind. One of the come about references in the story is the eye. The title itself, Revelation, gives clue as to how eyesight ordain play out in the entire story.Revelation involves exposing something into find out, and in the story, Mrs. Turpin recognize the prepossess she hides beneath the courteous demeanor. Through OConnors manual dexterity of hand, Mrs. Turpins epiphany gains resonance throughout the story precisely because of the symbols which OConnor employed. In Writing Short Stor ies, OConnor says that a particular object or action becomes symbolic when it accumulates meaning from the beginning of the story until it reaches the denouement (OConnor 1546).At the onset of the story, OConnor directs the readers attention to the physical style of Mrs. Turpin, most significantly to her eye. Her little bright black eyes took in all the patients as she sized up the seating situation (OConnor 818). It was through the appearances of people she sees in the waiting room that Mrs. Turpin judges whether they are concordant or not. It was also through her eyes that she communicates. Upon meeting the eye of the pleasant woman, she seems to have an understanding with her regarding the sorry state of other people inwardly the waiting room The look that Mrs. Turpin and the pleasant lady exchanged indicated they twain understood that you had to have certain things forrader you could know certain things (OConnor 822).OConnor uses eyesight as a symbol of the inner being of M rs. Turpin and the bide of the characters in the story unfeigned to the aphorism that the eye is the window to the soul. This is gain demonstrated in OConnors description of the white-trash womans eye as having a cast, which could literally be a physical eye ailment but could also mean a misery to see things as they rightly are. As a contrast to Mrs. Turpin, the ugly girl who is significantly named Mary compassion responds to the pathetic conversation with a scowl.Mary Grace was the kind of person that Mrs. Turpin could not make sense of or judge as easily as she could others. This suggests that Mary Grace and Turpin do not share the same sentiments regarding other people. Mary Grace, describe to have a peculiar eye, sees through Mrs. Turpins hypocrisy and uses her eye to condemn it. As Mrs. Turpins prejudice gets more blaring, Mary Grace fixes her piercing look at Mrs. Turpin who was starting to get conf apply at Mary Graces hateful look. Mrs. Turpin ignores the ugly girl and b lurts out a prayer not unlike that performed by a Pharisee in the Bible.Upon hearing this, the ugly girl throws a book and hits Mrs. Turpins left eye. In Oedipus Rex, eyesight and the lack thereof is used ironically to demonstrate how the kings blindness turned to sight (Bush). Similarly, Mrs. Turpin saw her prejudice through an impaired eye. She sees a vision, while in her backyard, revealing how her prejudice would get her behind the ranks of people marching to heaven. Eyesight, throughout the rest of the story, is used as a symbol of Mrs. Turpins prejudice as closely as her redemption. Another recurring object in the story which accretes symbolic meaning is the pig.Commonly associated with uncleanness, the pig symbolizes the moral state of Mrs. Turpin. It is no conjunction that she and her husband Claud raise pigs in their backyard. OConnor reinforces this symbol when Mary Grace calls Mrs. Turpin a warthog. Sparrow sees another meaning to the use of pigs in Revelation. accord to him, the act of cleaning the pigs before they are sent to the slaughterhouse symbolizes the act of purging in Purgatory. In the story, Mrs. Turpin violently hoses her pigs as she asks God with glow why she experienced the humiliating incident in the waiting room.This is a parallel to the act of cleansing that humans must undergo before they can reach heaven. Symbolizing Purgatory is evident in the final revelation Mrs. Turpin receives at the end of the story. The bridge connecting earth to heaven is a correct where virtues and vices will be equally purged. Shame and pride will be no more. Clean and unclean, sane and lunatic, white and black, gentile and Jew, slave and free, woman and man will enter in a single throng, the hold being outset, the first being the last. (The Black Cordelias). The waiting room where Mrs. Turpin experiences her first revelation is another symbol in the story.Filled with people that come from different walks of life, the waiting room is used as a m icrocosm of the society wherein niggers and whites, rich and poor brush shoulders with each other. OConnor employs a quasi(prenominal) technique in Everything that Rises Must Converge where she set the story in a bus, a scaled-down image of the world. In Revelation, people inside the waiting room inevitably take symbolic meaning. Five types of people can be seen inside the waiting room, relating to different kinds of people in society. The white trash woman, with her ignorant comments and hasty judgment, symbolizes people who are uninformed and uneducated.They view the world with a sharp dichotomy white and black. This is especially true in the South which was steeped with racism. The Negro represents those who are oppressed and marginalized in society. In most of OConnors story, black people prove to be nobler than whites who think they are superior. Consistent with her strong Catholic beliefs, OConnor puts discernment to the oppressed. Mrs. Turpin of course represents the prejud iced and hypocritical. She is typical of some Christians who wear a mask of righteousness to hide their real feelings towards people they do not tick with.In Revelation, OConnor puts hope in Gods reign to transform people like Mrs. Turpin, and for OConnor, Gods handling in the physical world is possible because of the sacraments, the visible signs of Gods intangible grace. Finally, the presence of Mary Grace symbolizes people who fix the derangement in the world brought about by prejudice and cruelty. Her name alludes to two Catholic beliefs Mary, the intermediary between man and Jesus, and Grace, the unmerited favor which God bestows man. OConnor uses Mary Grace to redeem Mrs. Turbin from her blindness and restore the balance in her life.The use of symbols in Flannery OConnor serves her purpose of translating into everyday circumstances the abstract truths and teachings of her faith. Her Christian worldview is reflected in her characters and the transformation they experience. Despite being a staunch believer and defender of her faith, her fiction, as demonstrated in Revelation, does not come as a didactic propaganda. Her deft writing and understanding of fiction enables her to create realistic and believable characters which, in turn, enable readers to see the world as it is.