Revelations in the Pig Parlor

“Revelation” is the story of Mrs. Ruby Turpin’s self realization. Flannery O’Connor takes us on Mrs. Turpin’s journey from damnation to possible redemption. Mrs. Turpin represents the sin of pride. Her self-satisfaction and obnoxious sense of superiority are taken to the extreme and eventually crushed by her final, belittling revelation. Through a series of strange events in unexpected places, O’Connor evokes the maxim that God works in mysterious ways.

Ruby, the protagonist, prides herself on being above everyone else. Her superiority complex is most clearly displayed in the doctor’s waiting room. While the waiting room is not the typical place for a spiritual awakening, it is a good location that emphasizes the maxim above. In the room is a collection of people from different socio-economic backgrounds: most notably, Mrs. Turpin, Claud, a pleasant (well-to-do) lady, a fat teenager, named Mary Grace, reading a book entitled Human Development, “white-trash” woman, and for a moment, a black delivery boy. Ruby places the classes of people in her own hierarchy: on the bottom were most “colored people,” then white-trash, then home owners, and then property owners like herself and Claud. She would “dream they were all crammed in together in a box car, being ridden off to be put in a gas oven” (24). In the waiting room, her internal thoughts reflect her constant criticism of her surroundings and company. For example, in reference to the cleanliness of her pigs, she thinks that her pigs are “cleaner by far than that child right there…poor nasty little thing” (44).

Mrs. Turpin’s sarcastic, smug remarks are heard only by the story’s readers. Yet, we get the sense that Mary Grace can also hear Mrs. Turpin’s internal thoughts. Mary’s scowling, smoldering eyes intensify with the mounting pride of Mrs. Turpin. Ruby repetitively praises God for elevating her above so many others. Her judgmental thoughts, coupled with her racist, derogatory commentary make Mrs. Turpin very disagreeable. However, in her own eyes, God gave her a good disposition (101). Blinded by her pride, Mrs. Turpin does not realize her many faults. And therefore she continues her praising of God. At the climax of Mrs. Turpin’s exaltation, she exclaims, “When I think who all I could have been besides myself and what all I got, a little of everything, and a good disposition besides, I just feel like shouting…Oh thank you Jesus, Jesus, thank you!” (101). Right then, Mary Grace hurls Human Development at Mrs. Turpin’s inflated ego. Mrs. Turpin is saved by the violent actions of Mary Grace. Her name is no coincidence, considering that she is the (unlikely) messenger of God’s grace to Ruby. Mary spats, “Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog” (113). At that moment, Mary’s intense eyes burned because she knew that “her message had struck its target”—literally and metaphorically (113).

Even after her encounter with Grace, Mrs. Turpin does not immediately realize her sin of pride. She wondered why “she had been singled out for the message, though there was trash in the room to whom it might justly have been applied” (130). Mary’s words echoed in Mrs. Turpin’s mind and disturbed her. Her last resort to understand this message was to ask God Himself.

Mrs. Turpin’s challenging of God is her most consequential display of pride. Her evening of questioning and denial created a whirlwind of anger and frustration within her mind. Ruby marched down to the pig parlor with a “look of a woman going single-handed, weaponless, into battle” (172). She looked to the heavens and—just as Lucifer—confronted God. In her ultimate moment of rage she roared, “Who do you think you are?” (187). The echo returned to her “like an answer from beyond the wood” (188). As if God simultaneously answered her and questioned her, “Who do you think you are?” Mrs. Turpin was utterly dumbfounded, signifying her humbling revelation. Ruby’s narrow sense of place was destroyed in that moment; while her perception of her place among men and God was widened. Mrs. Turpin—just as her fellow swine, illuminated by the sunset—was enlightened by a deeper understanding.

In the pig parlor, another unlikely place for spiritual enlightenment, O’Connor stages the second peak of Mrs. Turpin’s journey. Ruby’s vision of a processional march to heaven reestablished the message in her revelation: she, just as everyone else, must earn her way into heaven’s gates. The order in which they came was the opposite of her hierarchy. First in line were companies of white-trash followed by black people in white robes. Last in the procession were the people like her, known for their “common sense and respectable behavior” (192). However, their shocked and altered faces meant that “their virtues were being burned away” (192). This scene is where Mrs. Turpin’s self-image is transformed. She is last in line, even after the people she looks down upon. Her realization gives us hope that redemption is possible, despite her many mistakes.

In the end, Ruby’s beatitude over comes her as she hears the chirping chorus of crickets as the “voices of the souls climbing upward into the starry field and shouting hallelujah” (193). Although Mrs. Turpin is not an immediately likeable character, her spiritual journey gives her an opportunity for change and betterment. She realizes that she is last in line to heaven. But as she stares “unblinkingly on what lay ahead” she is aware of the necessity for change. At the beginning of “Revelation”, Ruby Turpin is smug and arrogant. But by the end, her newfound humility is a sign of her spiritual growth and hope for her future. (930)



Discussion questions:

1. Do your impressions of Mrs. Turpin change throughout the course of the story?
2. What was your reaction to Mary Grace throwing her book at Mrs. Turpin’s head?
3. Do we believe that Mrs. Turpin is a changed woman?