Revelation by Flannery O'Connor

Identify at least three allusions in the story and explain their significance.

Flannery O’Connor’s religious allusions are present in most of her short stories that we have read. In “Revelation,” the main character, Mrs. Turpin, the protagonist of the story has a major flaw, which is revealed repeatedly throughout the story. She has a great sense of satisfaction in her own sense of propriety. As she looks around the waiting room she continuously reminds herself how lucky she is because she is neither a negro nor white trash. She also comforts herself with the idea that she would at least be a good person if she were to be white trash or a negro. Most of the time she spends in the waiting room is spent on judging the people around her and feeling sorry for them.  This reveals a lot about her personality and an irony forms when she thinks to herself that she would be a well respected and liked negro or white trash. It is also ironic that she describes herself as a good Christian when all she does is judge the people around her. It is also important to note that she judges people according to their race and class. This not only makes her a bad person but also a bad Christian unlike what she believes. An allusion therefore in the story is that in the Bible and in God’s eyes all are equal no matter what their races are. Though Mrs. Turpin believes she is already "saved” because of her Christian faith, she needs a revelation from Mary Grace to realize that her worldview is inconsistent with her Christianity. Even though she think she is a good Christian because she gives ice water to black people and treats her black workers nicely it is not how we act but actually the truth and our mind that makes us a good person or not. For Mrs. Turpin being a good Christian is about actions; however she fails to understand that what you believe in when you act is also important.

Another allusion in the story comes from the civil right movement by the black people. We can understand this through the dialogue Mrs. Turpin has with the other lady in the waiting room where she explains that white folks are now nearly equal to white folks and how you can’t get negroes to pick up cotton anymore.

What is the revelation Mrs. Turpin experiences?

Mrs. Turpin occupies her thoughts by putting the people in the waiting room into what she considers to be their "proper categories," using clichés, which clearly reveal her view of the world. Even though she believes she is a good Christian she fails to understand that in order to be a good Christian you also have to be good at heart and also inside your mind. She believes that being a good Christian is giving to charity, however, she only does this to seem and make herself believe she is a good Christian however she truly isn’t. Towards the end of the story her revelation comes from Mary Grace. She understands that her actions aren’t enough to be a good Christian. She sees a vision where she sees herself following behind negros and white trash towards the path of God. With this vision she understands that in God’s eyes all people are equal.

By the end of the story, Mrs. Turpin realizes that in order to be a good Christian as well as a good person she needs to have a good heart, through her revelation due to Mary Grace.

What circumstances triggered her revelation?

Mrs. Turpin has to have a revelation in order to understand how a truly good Christian person is. Through her revelation she understands what she has done wrong and understands that she needs to have a good heart in order to be a good person. The hypocrisy created by Mrs. Turpin is what triggers her revelation. The hypocrisy she represents causes Mary Grace to be furious at her because even though she seems like a nice lady, Mary grace understands what is going through her head through Mrs. Turpin’s judgmental looks around the waiting room, which to her surprise is filled with people from different social groups. Mrs. Turpin’s actions and her thoughts contrast greatly and thus triggers her revelation.

Ruby Turpin’s experience seems to be something revealed to her by another agency? Identify that agency and explain how O’Connor crafts that agency into her story.

Mary Grace is the observer who understands the truth behind Mrs. Turpin’s actions and she is greatly disturbed by it. She refuses to get in a dialogue with Mrs. Turpin and stares at her as if she were reading her mind, which Mrs. Turpin also worries about. Therefore it can be said that Mary Grace’s actions are like a message to Mrs. Turpin because Mary Grace is like a reflection of Mrs. Turpin in a way because she stares at her like Mrs. Turpin stares at other people then attacks her like Mrs. Turpin attacks the people around her inside her mind.  Mary Grace is attack is represented like a message from God to Mrs. Turpin because of the abrupt attack.

Select three statements from the story and explain the meaning O’Connor squeezed into their context.

“Why me”

“Who do you think you are?”

“The message had been given to Ruby Turpin, a respectable, hard-working, church- going woman.”

All three of these quotes by Rudy Turpin have one thing in common and that is that they show how self-satisfied Mrs. Turpin was before her revelation. In each of these quotes she has a hard time understanding why God and Mary Grace choose her since she is a good Christian and a respectable hard-working person. The first quote serves to make the reader understand that she was not expecting to be given a message like that or be attacked like that because in her eyes she has always been respectful and nice to everyone which are actions of a good Christian. The second quotes serves to show both the people in the story and the reader how she feels superior over everyone else. The third quote serves for the same purpose as it’s there to show the reader how she feels about herself and that she doesn’t deserve anything that has happened to her.

Master Harold... and the boys

Woman of Magnitude

When it comes to picking a man of magnitude, there are so many people to consider. As a Turkish citizen Atatürk is the most important one to consider looking at all the advancements he made to our country. However, what I realized is that when it comes to picking a man of magnitude, accomplishments aren’t what we look at. Man of magnitude is the person we can relate to, someone we can empathize with and someone who inspires us an urges us to think outside of our boxes. This is why my woman of magnitude is Emmeline Pankhurst.

Emmeline Pankhurst is a woman I have admired since I was in third grade. She was a women’s suffragette, a woman who fought for equal rights for women, such as the right to vote. To achieve her goal she took on risks and tried everything from enduring ten hunger strikes to opening several organizations to empower women in England and bring them together. She was widely criticized for her militant tactics, and historians disagree about their effectiveness, but her work is recognized as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in Britain. I still think she is my hero as well as my woman of magnitude because in my country, women rarely fought for their rights, rather the leader of the country granted them rights. This is why I feel even more fascinated by what she achieved.

Emmeline Pankhurst is also my woman of magnitude because of the way she dealt with her fears and adversity when she went against the grain of society. The way she presents herself as a fearless woman ready to fight for what she wants is inspiring to me because she is the person I want to be like. Today I’m a girl that isn’t afraid but looks frail, fragile and timid. It is okay to be afraid, it is okay be to be scared of the world, just as long as you don’t show it. Because when you do, you fall apart. Emmeline Pankhurst is one of the strongest women I have encountered. Living in a man dominated world, she had the courage to stand up and show everyone that what she believed in was the correct thing to believe in and for that I’ll admire her for the rest of my life because in the short life that I lived I understood that the hardest thing is to one, change the point of view of a socially blind community and secondly to accept that you’re wrong and admit that someone else is correct. Emmeline Pankhurst both changed the point of view of many people in her community and made people admit that she was actually correct.

To see that just one person with a dream and several people who believe in that person is enough to achieve anything gives me hope for the future and also a passion to fight for the change I want to see in the world. It is inspiring to read about what she achieved because she fought for women to have the right to vote in a world were women didn’t even have a voice. There will never be women as strong as Emmeline Pankhurst even though we now live in a world where “men and women are equal”. 

Mystery of Youth

There is always so much hidden in youth. The lies, the made up stories, the questions. We feel like everything is clear and far from complex, yet there is always so much to dig out. The treasures hidden underneath years and years worth of age. Living in it feels pure, simple and flowing. But that's only what you assume as you observe other people living their youth. Years and years passing hide the truth, dust from the years cover up the reality. As more years pass the dust becomes thicker and the reality disappears little by little. All the feelings, memories, emotions are kept in mystery. One that will never be solved. Ever.
Looking back at it makes youth seem factual, but it never is.

Youth

Youth & Ode; Intimations of Immortality

Youth by Joseph Conrad and Ode; Intimations of Immortality by Williams Wordsworth are written about a similar topic. Both texts talk about the youth of the narrators. Even though they have different views of youth they also have some ideas that are very similar. Marlow, the narrator in Joseph Conrad’s Youth, remembers his youth as  “the feeling that will never come back any more- the feeling that he could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men.” In William Wordsworth’s poem, the narrator believes that “The things which he has seen, he can see no more” now that his youth has passed.                                                                                                             

Williams uses a lot of imagery from nature. He thinks that what amazed him and saw differently when he was younger pass all passed and even though nature stays forever his appreciation for it. For him after his youth, “But yet I know, where’er I go, that there hath past away a glory from the earth.” For Marlow looking back at his youth makes him remember the glamour of it and the joy of it. He enjoys looking back at his youth because he like the point o view he had towards life itself as a twenty-two year old in his first experience as a second mate.      
                                           

But both narrators agree that there is something special, enchanting about youth, which made them feel like they were invincible, that they would live forever. For both of them how they view the world was different as they lived their youth. For Williams Wordsworth in youth, you have a deeper appreciation for nature because you come from heaven as a baby and therefore nature feels like going back to the place you came from.                                 
                                                                             

Marlow also feels the same way about how youth sees things differently than they are. What Marlow says about the ship is a good example for this. “O youth! The strength of it, the faith of it, the imagination of it! To me she was not an old rattle-trap carting about the world a lot of coal for a freight- to me she was the endeavour, the test, the trial of life.” Judea might be an old and rotten ship for anybody looking at him but as a young man, Marlow looked at “her” with affection and pleasure.

Once I Was, But Now I'm...

Once I Was Young, But Now I am Perfect

Once I played hopscotch
But now I have IB

Once I put a hazelnut in my nostril
But now I put books in my bag

Once I played in the sand
But now I play on the streets

Once I kicked my little cousin
But now I embrace the moments we had

Once we ventured through Holland
But now were rotting in Ankara

Once I believed in pink elephants
But now I smoke them

Once we thought school was hard
But now we know it is

Once Santa came with gifts
But now I know better

Once school amused me
But now it bores me

Once Dr. Seuss took me to wonderland
But now he’s six feet under

Once I wore pink hair
But now I wear brown

Once I wanted to grow up
But now I want to be smaller

Sasha&Cansu&Murat