Flannery O’Connor’s short story, Revelation includes the self-righteous character Ruby Turpin. Revelation depicts violence and Mrs.Turpin is one of the stories main victim. One day while Mrs.Turpin waits in the doctor's waiting room amongst others, a young girl by the name of Mary Grace, gives Ruby the verbal threat of telling her to go back to hell where she came from and calling her an old wart hog. Offended and confused, Ruby goes home. As the day passes, her anger moves away from the girl who attacked her to now being angry at god. Ruby simply cannot comprehend why God sent her, the good, respectable Ruby Turpin, such a horrible message. She is angry and find herself yelling at God, until suddenly she has a vision. The vision dismantles the image Ruby has drawn of herself, and perceived of other people and of the world. At the end of the story, Ruby is given grace by God. The verbal and physical violence is what stimulated Ruby Turpin’s spiritual awakening. The violence found in this short story is not only a destructive force, but also seems to be productive with a divine and spiritual purpose. In the waiting room, what Ruby describes to be an “ugly girl” with the significant name of Mary …show more content…
She understands that she was singled out as a victim, but she does not understand why. Her self-righteousness leads her to strongly believe that other people in the waiting room would have been more suitable victims. She pities herself for going through that trauma and wants others to pity her as well that she decides to tell the story to the black cotton pickers and further construct herself as an innocent, suffering victim of violence. The cotton pickers tell her exactly what she wants to hear, but she is not satisfied, probably because she knows that they are not being genuine. Suddenly, her act of victimhood is cracked and it becomes difficult for her to believe in her own