Mrs. Turpin's Faith

I find it interesting that Mrs. Turpin, Much like Granny Weatherall, expects that, because of her close relationship with the church/God, she deserves to be treated in a specific way. While Granny Weatherall expects some sort of salvation or entrance to heaven, Mrs. Turpin feels as though God should protect her from malicious people. Mrs. Turpin believes that God has sent her a disturbing and injudicious message through the ‘ugly girl’: “The message had been given to Ruby Turpin, a respectable, hard-working, church-going woman” (502). She cannot understand how something bad can happen to someone ‘good’ like herself. Mrs. Turpin believes that she should be protected from harmful and slanderous comments like these. When she hoses down the pigs by herself she states, “‘What do you send me a message like that for?’” (506), making it appear as though she is speaking directly to God. I think that Mrs. Turpin believes that God has control of everything that happens to her—that he has dictated the event. She is deeply hurt because of all the time she has dedicated to helping the less-fortunate and working at her church. This sense of imagined or assumed safety is questioned in both the case of Granny Weatherall and Mrs. Turpin, and perhaps is meant to act as a comment on people’s often expectant tendencies in regard to their faith.