A Taste Of Reality

In the short story, “Revelation” by Flannery O’Connor, there are numerous themes and symbols throughout the text. Not only does this story contain many themes and symbols, but so does “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, and “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner. In the short stories, there are four important characters that will give readers a glimpse of their lives, and how they found an important-meaningful experience within themselves. These characters include Mrs. Turpin in “Revelation,” the husband in “Cathedral,” and Sarty and Abner Snopes in “Barn Burning. ” Each of the characters all share a common theme: self-awareness. In the three short stories, characters such as Mrs. Turpin, the husband, Sarty, and Abner all experience a grasp of reality about their life that connects to each other.

To start, Mrs. Turpin experience reality about her life through a forgiving god. She visits a doctor office to treat her husband, Claud, and gains insight into unique occupants in the waiting room. One particular unique occupant is a girl name Mary Grace. Hint the name, Mary Grace physically struck Mrs. Turpin. This ultimately gave Mrs. Turpin a twist on her outlook of life. Before, Mrs. Turpin is racist and she is a snob to a certain extent. Afterwards, Mary Grace apparently had enough, and struck Mrs. Turpin as mentioned. Mrs. Turpin explained that “At length she got down and turned off the faucet and made her slow way on the darkening path to the house. In the woods around her the invisible cricket choruses had struck up, but what she heard were the voices of the souls climbing upward into the starry field and shouting hallelujah” (O’Connor 427). Finally, Mrs. Turpin realizes that God is forgiving of her racism and being a judgmental person. She understands that she achieves grace by knowing she is wrong, but can always contain morally right thoughts. Mrs. Turpin realization connects to the story “Cathedral. ” In “Cathedral,” the husband realizes that other people’s point of view are crucially important. The husband states “It’s really something,” I said” (Carver 113). Mrs. Turpin and the husband both gain a religious experience that will help both of them grasp multiple people’s view of things in the future.

Meanwhile, the husband experience a grasp of reality by becoming fully aware of himself. In the story’s opening, the husband displays a negative perspective of his wife’s old friend, Robert. The husband is very self-absorbed, and is critical when his wife leaves for the train station, to go pick up her blind friend. Later on, the three of them sit down after dinner to talk about Robert and his deceased wife, Beulah. Robert turns the television on, while the wife goes up stairs, then comes back down shortly after and they all smoke marijuana. In this situation, this is the part of the story where it starts to symbolize important things. This includes the dinner, the marijuana, and that the wife fell asleep after she smoked marijuana. The dinner was a sense of togetherness, while the marijuana was a gateway to an open mind. Once the wife smoked, she fell asleep to literally close the conversation in between the husband and Robert. Now, Robert and the husband are in the same room together, watching television. The husband is wondering what a cathedral looks like to Robert. The husband describes what a cathedral looks like to Robert, but Robert insists that the husband takes Robert’s hand, and begins to draw a cathedral. As a result, the narrator stated “My eyes were still close. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything” (Carver 113). At the end of the story, the husband felt some sense of self-awareness by putting his shoes into Robert’s by seeing the world through a blind man’s eyes, which forces the husband to see the world through new lens. Similarly, in the story “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner, the main character name Sarty, experience a similar point of view. Toward the end, Sarty realizes that he is removing himself from his old life. Just like Sarty, the husband removed himself from his old life, to begin a new one through a different perspective. Sarty runs away from his family and “He did not look back” (Faulkner 183).

Correspondingly, Sarty experience reality by realizing loyalty in the sense of law is more important than his family, which shows self-awareness. Sarty is the son of Abner Snopes, who apparently burned down a barn. In the story, Sarty is taught that if he betrays his family for telling the truth about his father, it is considered a huge deal to the family. The family moves away, then Abner displays the evilness that society can show. Abner steps into horse manure, and purposefully drags his feet inside of a mansion to ruin Mr. de Spain’s rug, which leads to a major court battle. Towards the end, Abner came up with a bizarre idea: to burn Mr. de Spain’s barn down. At this point, Sarty realizes that he had enough. Sarty plots to tell Mr. de Spain that his father is going to burn down the barn. Sarty starts shouting “Yes!” the boy cried. “Barn!” (Faulkner 182). After the shouting, Sarty gained freedom and ran away leaving everything past him now. Finally, “He went on down the hill, toward the dark woods within which the liquid silver voices of the birds called unceasing-the rapid and urgent beating of the urgent and quiring heart of the late spring night. He did not look back” (Faulkner 183). Sarty realizes that telling the truth is more important than not telling the truth in the sense of law. Even though his father taught him that family is more important, Sarty experience self-awareness within himself. He is becoming wiser and now makes his own choices for the rest of his life. In comparison, Sarty and the husband from “Cathedral” can relate to their ending actions. Sarty is fully self-aware of himself and the actions that he had made, while the husband is self-aware as well. Both Sarty and the husband are self-aware of their new beginning in the futuristic world.

As a final point, Abner Snopes experience reality by self-realizing through fate. Abner is the father of Sarty, who is a ten-year-old boy. Sarty admires his father, even though Abner is a very psychological damaging human being towards his own blood. Abner shows violence and not a man society would want to cross paths with. In the story, Abner was a mercenary during the Civil War. He would fight for the wealth that war would bring, not because Abner wanted to serve for the country. It is not surprise that Abner is the way he is, due to hardships in his life. In the text, it states that “His father turned, and he followed the stiff black coat, the wiry figure walking a little stiffly from where a Confederate provost’s man’s musket ball had taken him in the heel on a stolen horse thirty years ago” (Faulkner 173). Through fate, this led to Abner not changing the way he is and explains why he is malicious. Similarly, the husband from “Cathedral,” can be defined the same way. The husband experience reality through fate by not realizing other people’s feelings just like Abner showed. Overall, Abner and the husband show self-realization through fate by not changing as a character in the beginning.

In the final analysis, the four characters that made up the theme of self-awareness, can finally show society a grasp of their life. Many of these characters mentioned, all experience a meaningful encounter within themselves. For instance, Mrs. Turpin is self-aware of how such a God could be so forgiving. The husband realize that he can apply himself to put his feet into other people’s shoes. Being outside, Sarty has the freedom to roam and make his own choices in the future. Lastly, Abner is self-aware that he is a damaging person, but his past experience can apply to his actions. All of the four characters mentioned can help readers connect them to each other. Thoughtfully, readers will understand the grasp of reality about the characters’ lives.