Flannery OConnors Revelation struck me as a story about how a single, seemingly insignificant observation can change ones entire perspective. The story starts by going into meticulous detail in portraying the life of the main character, Ruby Turnpin. The story is written from a first person perspective, and the first few pages are all seemingly meaningless banality: Mrs. Turnpin making petty observations about fellow waiting room occupants, the current status of the ash-trays, and peoples shoes. Reading through in a normal manner, you dont even notice that Mrs. Turnpin makes a habit of judging everyone and everything she sees and placing much of it below herself, imagining that the waiting room is deliberately shoddy, that if she were in charge the ash trays would be clean, and reflecting on how she always had good skin. Without even realizing it youre shown that Ruby Turnpin is a very self-serving and judgmental person, but OConnor portrays it in such a way that it seems rational. What I see as part of the genius of the storys construction is that its introduction feels boring as you read it for the first time. The suspense of the coming revelation alluded to in the title is present, but you dont realize it was there until after the fact. The Ugly Girl started with an innocuous sour look. Ms .Turnpins outward reaction is to smile, but the first person perspective exposes her judgment of the girl on even this minor point; the conclusion that the sour look was from the girl being annoyed that anyone should speak while she tried to read. (418.19) In the space between this and the next interaction with the girl, Mrs. Turnpins flaws are elaborated on through her conversation with other waiting room occupants and her internal musings. Her examination of peoples shoes is implied as a way of pigeon-holing people into the class as perceived by Mrs. Turnpin. In particular she describes the shoes of the white trashey woman as being what appeared to be bedroom slippers, black straw with gold braid threaded through them exactly what you would have expected her to have on. (418.22) The reader is all but assaulted by Mrs. Turnpins pretension with her hypothetical dilemma, forcing her to choose between being a grandma or a white-trash. (but not before emphasis on her opinion that being even a clean, respectable black woman would be distasteful enough to warrant wiggling, squirming, begging, and pleading). When the book strikes Ms. Turnpin, the first time we read the story it comes as a complete and total surprise. Up until that point the story had been misleadingly dull. Also, there is this one set for Necromancers in D2 that turns them into a vampire. Trang-Oul's I think.
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