Dan deRoulet is my instructor in this series on how to read fiction. We are looking at Flannery O\u2019Connor\u2019s \u201cRevelation.\u201d He\u2019s asked me two questions \u2014 which parables do the exposition and crisis evoke, and where was Mrs. Turpin when she got her epiphany?<\/p>\n
Your questions are good ones, Dan. They lead me to ask things I would not have asked of this short story.<\/p>\n
The first parable that came to mind for me, in light of how the parable ends \u2014 with the right people going down into hell and the wrong people going up into heaven \u2014 was the parable of the workers in the vineyard, or the parable of the marriage guests because both of those parables are shocking instances of reversal of expectations. I can see those themes in Flannery O\u2019Connor\u2019s short story.<\/p>\n
I will also admit that what came to mind for me when I read this story was Matt 23, Jesus\u2019 intense excoriation of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and scribes.<\/p>\n
And, esp since you brought this up Dan \u2014 I hadn\u2019t thought of it all, by connecting parable to where Mrs. Turpin is for the epiphany of her own soul, I went to the parable of the prodigal son for he also was in a pig sty when he realized the state of his own soul.<\/p>\n
And, now that you bring me to see this Dan, I have to admit the scene in which she washes off pigs, with a little frustration, and comments on who she is \u2014 well, this is classic O\u2019Connor \u201cirony\u201d \u2014 isn\u2019t it? Mrs. Turpin needs the cleaning; she\u2019s been called a \u201cwart hog\u201d; and here we finding her cleaning hogs; wondering how she could be called a wart hog. The irony is so thick I felt pity on the woman. \u201cHow am I saved and from hell too?\u201d Wow, that\u2019s potent stuff out of the woman. \u201c\u2026 blindly pointing the stream of water in and out of the eye of the old sow whose outraged squeal she did not hear.\u201d Strong stuff again.<\/p>\n
Question: What does she mean by \u201cPut that bottom rail on top. There\u2019s still be a top and bottom!\u201d Is this O\u2019Connor anticipating eternal reversal? Or is this just Mrs. Turpin saying \u2026 what?<\/p>\n
\u201cShe gripped the rail of the hog pen \u2026\u201d again. Wow.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dan deRoulet is my instructor in this series on how to read fiction. We are looking at Flannery O\u2019Connor\u2019s \u201cRevelation.\u201d He\u2019s asked me two questions \u2014 which parables do the exposition and crisis evoke, and where was Mrs. Turpin when she got her epiphany?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education"],"yoast_head":"\n