A 3 page paper which examines the power of an epiphany in presenting the reader with impact in “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor. No additional sources cited.
Name of Research Paper File: JR7_RAepihr.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
are pleasant stories for the most part, stories that provide us with characters who are deep thinkers perhaps, or characters who are going through some moment in their life. Each
story, however, provides us with an incredible jolt in the end, an epiphany that truly marks the story as memorable and powerful. The following paper examines the power and impact
of these epiphanies in Chopin and OConnors stories. The Story of an Hour In this particular story we are offered a woman who has just been told her
husband was killed in an accident. The story takes place in the past, in a time when women could hope for nothing more from life than to be married and
raise a family. This woman leaves her attendants to go to her room and sit. They believe that she is grieving, but in all actuality she is slowly thinking about
her life in the future. As she sits and imagines her future she realizes that she loved her husband "sometimes" and that while she had a pleasant enough life,
she was becoming elated at the idea of living a life outside the constraints of marriage (Chopin). She was becoming more and more content and happy with the visions of
a future where she could do as she pleased, without the burden of a husband. She was not imagining a life where she lived wildly, but rather a subtle and
simple life where she did not have to attend to the needs of being a wife. Her joy was incredible as she envisioned a peaceful reality where she only had
to be herself, not be someones wife as well. Throughout this "hour" we see her becoming a very happy and content woman, not a crying and confused woman who has