Short Story Analysis Literature & Language Essay Paper (Essay Sample)

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Religious Hypocrisy and Power of Saving Grace in “Revelation” by Flannery O’Connor
It is indisputable that Flannery O’Conner’s stories primarily focus on grace and redemption, evident through the prominent use of religious imageries and narratives to portray the experiences and actions of her characters. In the most part, however, O’Conner’s depiction of religious themes is subtle, as she leaves room for a secular interpretation of events. For instance, in the short story “The Enduring Chill,” the protagonist Asbury Fox experiences a vision of the Holy Ghost descending upon and engulfing him, an incidence that could be explained (from a secular perspective) as hallucination due to the effect of the fever he is suffering from. It is in “Revelation” that O’Connor presents an unmistakably religious experience to highlight the state of the human condition. The story is about the experience of a middle class white woman, Ruby Turpin, who has a lofty image of herself and her class in general because of their material possession and the social status they occupy in society. Grateful for being born a white middle class woman, Turpin despises the “white trash and niggers” who occupy the bottom rank of the social order, and entrains fantasies of having them shipped off to Africa because they are unfit to breath the same air with her class. She experiences a her moment of revelation when she has a vision, in which she sees throngs of those he called white trash and blacks marching to heaven, while she and her fellow high society whites follow from behind. This revelation is symbolic as it conveys the idea that God does not look at appearances or social status, but on one’s inner character. At the time of writing the story, O’Connor was also suffering from lupus, and her sense of helplessness might have inspired her to look to the afterlife as her salvation. Accordingly, this story can be interpreted from a cultural and biographical perspective as O’Connor’s rejection of the religious hypocrisy of her time, the racist attitudes by Whites who viewed blacks as inferior beings, and the eventual redemption of fallen souls through religious revelation. Thus, it is arguable that while O’Connor criticizes the upper class white society’s hypocrisy, she views all humans not only as equal before God, but beneficiaries of His redeeming grace.