Hierarchy Overturned and the Last Shall March First
“Until the sun slipped finally behind the tree line, Mrs. Turpin remained there with her gaze bent to them as if she were absorbing some abysmal life-giving knowledge. At last she lifted her head. There was only a purple streak in the sky, coming through a field of crimson and leading, like an extension of the highway, into the descending dusk. She raised her hands from the side of the pen in a gesture hieratic and profound. A visionary light settled in her eyes. She saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire.” – Flannery O’Connor, “Revelation”
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Historical Context and Chronology
Revelation, published in 1964 in the O’Connor collection Everything That Rises Must Converge, was one of the last stories she completed before her death that same year. It represents O’Connor’s mature work, written when her lupus had advanced to its final stages and critics suggest that her own experience with illness influenced her late stories, particularly in how physical suffering can lead to spiritual insight.
This story’s themes of social hierarchy, self-righteousness, and unexpected grace, are consistent throughout her career, but Revelation handles them with particular subtlety. Rather than the violent deaths in A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Ruby’s revelation comes through a vision brought on by Mary Grace’s violent outburst. The story reflects O’Connor’s ongoing concern with how divine grace breaks through human pretension, but with a complexity that shows her development as a writer and theologian.
The Progression Scenes
In class, we often speak about scenes laying down, one after another, in a progression/escalation. This story gives a solid example with it’s five scenes that build to Ruby Turpin’s ultimate revelation:
- The Doctor’s Office – This is a long opening scene that establishes everything and plants the seeds for what follows
- The Drive Home – Ruby processes internally returning to her perfectly curated home.
- Laying Down – After a nap, where her husband’s leg “hurts like hell” she is only concerned with herself, and re-establishing her value.
- The Front of the house – Where Ruby tells her Black workers about her experience and dismissed them.
- The Pig Porch – Where Ruby questions God and receives her vision
Characters in the Doctor’s Office – Social Hierarchy and Progressive Revelation
This initial scene is brilliantly constructed as a microcosm of Southern society, with each character representing different social strata and challenging Ruby’s self-perception:
Ruby Turpin – The protagonist whose smug self-satisfaction and obsession with social hierarchy drives the story. She constantly categorizes people and thanks God she was made exactly as she is.
Claud Turpin – Ruby’s husband, who has the ulcerated leg that brings them to the doctor, is passive but occasionally attempts to temper Ruby’s more blatant judgments.
The “White-Trash” Woman – Dressed in dirty yellow sweat shirt and slacks, she’s overtly hostile to Ruby’s pretensions. Her statements about sending “them all back to Africa” reveal her own bigotry.
The “White-Trash” Woman’s Boy – Described as having a “rusty” face full of sores and a running nose, he embodies for Ruby the poor upbringing she associates with “white trash.”
The “Well-Dressed, Pleasant” Woman – Represents the “respectable” middle class that Ruby aspires to be associated with. She carries a fancy pocketbook and wears “red fingernails.”
Mary Grace – The pivotal character, a “fat girl” and college student reading a book called “Human Development.” Her growing rage at Ruby’s self-satisfied monologue culminates in throwing her book at Ruby and calling her “a wart hog from hell.”
Mary Grace’s Mother – The stylish, well-dressed lady who apologizes for her daughter’s behavior. Her embarrassment reveals social concerns similar to Ruby’s.
The Black Delivery Boy – Brief but significant presence who shows deference to whites, reinforcing Ruby’s worldview that everyone should “stay in their place.”
The Nurse – Professional figure who maintains order in the waiting room and tends to Mary Grace after her outburst.
The Doctor – Mostly off-stage but represents professional authority who ultimately sedates Mary Grace.
O’Connor arranges these characters as a social hierarchy that Ruby constantly evaluates. Ruby places herself above:
- Black people (at the bottom of her hierarchy)
- “White trash” (whom she considers lazy and dirty)
But below:
- The stylish, wealthy woman (whom she envies but criticizes)
This waiting room becomes a pressure cooker where Ruby’s constant self-justification and judgment of others builds tension until Mary Grace’s violent reaction shatters Ruby’s complacency.
The Vision and the Inversion
What makes Ruby’s vision so powerful is the complete reversal of her carefully maintained social order. She considered beneath her—”whole companies of white trash, clean for the first time in their lives, and bands of blacks in white robes, and battalions of freaks and lunatics”—are now all marching toward heaven “with great dignity, accountable as they had always been for nothing.”
Meanwhile, “decent” people like herself and Claud bring up the rear, still maintaining their virtuous behavior but not first in this heavenly procession. Their “shocked and altered faces” suggest they’re recognizing for the first time that their worldly virtues (which Ruby constantly enumerates) count for little in God’s economy of grace.
This isn’t explicitly labeled as Purgatory, but it certainly suggests a purgatorial reordering of Ruby’s soul—she must unlearn her pride and self-satisfaction before she can truly enter grace. The burning sensation she feels when Mary Grace calls her a wart hog from hell is described as “like burns,” which evokes traditional imagery of purgatorial fire.
The Significance of the Pigs
The pig imagery is multilayered and rich with biblical resonance:
- The “Wart Hog” Insult: Mary Grace’s specific choice of “wart hog” connects Ruby to pigs, animals considered dirty and beneath human dignity in Ruby’s worldview.
- The Gadarene Swine: There’s also an echo of the story where Jesus casts demons into a herd of swine (Mark 5:1-20). Ruby’s moment at the pig parlor, where she shouts at God, “Who do you think you are?” parallels the dramatic moment when the demons are cast out.
- Ruby’s Livelihood: The fact that Ruby and Claud raise pigs creates an ironic connection—her prosperity comes from creatures she considers beneath dignity, just as her salvation may come through accepting people she considers beneath her.
The scene at the pig parlor represents Ruby at her lowest point, questioning God directly. But in doing so, Ruby doesn’t quite reach complete humility. Her revelation is still in progress as the story ends, with the procession of souls still marching toward heaven “in the distance.”
Prompts:
- Write a story set entirely in a waiting room where characters from different social backgrounds are forced to interact. Create tension through their judgments of one another, and have one character experience a profound shift in perspective by the end of the scene.
- Create a character who takes pride in their social position. Write a scene where they experience a vision or dream in which all their assumptions about status and worth are completely inverted. How does this challenge change them?
- Write about a character who receives a harsh truth from someone they consider beneath them or unqualified to judge them. Explore how they initially reject the message but gradually come to recognize its validity.
