Revelations of a Wart Hog

Last week, I was posed with a curious question about "Revelation, by Flannery O'Connor": Did Mrs. Turpin, the wart hog from hell, truly experience a genuine revelation that evening beside the pig parlor, or was it just a superficial moment that would remain in Mrs. Turpin's mind only temporarily? While the reader could take it either way, I strongly believe that Mrs. Turpin really did change permanently after God sent her an answer in her echo. What would be the point of the story if she didn't experience a revelation? But, Mrs. Turpin, the big, looming, and commanding woman who feels a sense of superiority, does change into a woman who understands that all human beings were created equal.

There is no evidence in the story to support the idea that Mrs. Turpin does not experience a genuine revelation. In fact, everything points toward the idea that she was awestruck by the vision she saw and the answer she received from God. Beside the pig parlor, she screams, "Who do you think you are?" This same question is then "returned to her like an answer from beyond the wood." It is this delicate moment in which Mrs. Turpin shows change. It is at this point, where she holds a new perspective on life. When she hears the answer to her question, "She open[s] her mouth, but no sound [comes] out of it." Mrs. Turpin takes this moment and reflects upon her "virtous" life, and then she realizes that she is not the commanding, superior woman she once thought she was. In fact, right after this moment, she acknowledges that Claud's truck looked like a "child's toy" in the distance. She then thinks to herself, "At any moment a bigger truck might smash into it and scatter Claud's and the niggers' brains all over the road." Her sense of helplessness here leads to her ultimate revelation.

All of the evidence leads to this ultimate revelation. The author is very clear in her language. "Mrs. Turpin remained [beside the pig pen] with her gaze bent as if she were absorbing some abysmal life-giving knowledge." If that's not enough, all doubt should be quenched when "a visionary light settle[s] in her eyes."

It doesn't matter how extreme and inhumane her views and thoughts were in the doctor's waiting room--she can still experience a revelation and change. In the words of one of my classmates, "Change has to start somewhere. " This is where the change starts for Mrs. Turpin. The author gives us no reason to think that the change Mrs. Turping undergoes is only temporary. We know the vision impacts her when she remains completely immobile for a long period of time. Only after a length of time does she start to make her "slow way on the darkening path" to her house.

So, in answer to the question, yes, Mrs. Turpin, the mean old wart hog from hell does experience a genuine revelation that forces her to change. Her revelation from God shows her that anyone, regardless of class or social status, can climb "upward into the starry field."
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