The doctor’s waiting room and pig parlor are
appropriate places for Mrs. Turpin’s revelations because they are both places where she
puts her needs above those of others.
In the
doctor’s office, Mrs. Turpin assumes she is the most important person there. Yet
doctor’s offices cater to sick people. Mrs. Turpin is neither the most important person
nor the sickest person there.
There was one vacant chair
and a place on the sofa occupied by a blond child in a dirty blue romper who should have
been told to move over and make room for the lady.
Mrs.
Turpin is not sick. She is there to accompany her husband, who got kicked by a cow.
She is just selfish, assuming she should have a spot to sit. She could stand just as
well as anyone else.
The pig parlor is an example of Mrs.
Turpin’s vanity. She is proud of the fact that her pigs are not raised like
pigs.
Our hogs
are not dirty and they don't stink," she said. "They're cleaner than some children I've
seen. Their feet never touch the ground. We have a pig-parlor- that's where you raise
them on concrete,"
Mrs.
Turpin does not care how pigs are supposed to be raised, or the fact that they like cool
mud. She always puts her needs above anyone else’s.
When
she returns to the pig parlor at the end of the story, the revelation from the doctor’s
office has not entirely set in yet. She is still mulling over the idea that she is not
above everyone else. She sees a light in the pig
parlor.
Then
like a monumental statue coming to life, she bent her head slowly and gazed, as if
through the very heart of mystery, down into the pig parlor at the
hogs.
It seems as if she has
fallen into a meditative state upon looking at the hogs, creatures that she does not
take care of well enough.
Mrs. Turpin's vision extends to
Heaven, where she sees others ascending. These are people she has looked down upon, and
people she has placed below herself. She realizes then, in those two places, that she
is just another woman. She is no better than anyone else.
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