Epiphany In Desiree's Baby

The Building Blocks of an Epiphany According to Meriam Webster Dictionary, an epiphany can be “a moment in which you suddenly see or understand something in a new clear way”. The crescendo of events prior to an epiphany is the journey one must endure to reach the apex. In the short stories “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, the main characters, Desiree and Armand, each reach epiphanies as their relationship is tested by the war between racial inequality and love. In the story “A&P” by John Updike the main character Sammy is witness to his own epiphany after what starts a simple day turns into a life altering event. As presented in “Desiree’s Baby” and in “A&P”, characters in each story experience the apogee of an epiphany that is outlined

Judgements are as commonplace as breathing for any person, and are often influenced by the basest of emotions, and judgements fuel the storylines in both “Desiree’s Baby” and “A&P”. In “Desiree’s Baby” the judgement of Armand about his love for Desiree was sudden, he “fell in love, as if struck by a pistol shot…the passion that awoke in him that day…swept along like an avalanche” (Chopin).

This consequence can be indirect or direct or both. In the stories “Desiree’s Baby” and “A&P” characters find that their choices cause both indirect and direct consequences from their choices. Desiree made a choice to confront Armand about the meaning behind Zandrine’s change, and faced a direct consequence of her marriage ending. Armand was faced with at least two consequences. The first being the dissolution of his marriage, and later the knowledge that he was in fact at fault for the change. At the end of the story as he is divesting himself of Desiree’s belongings, he comes across a letter from his own deceased mother which reads,” night and day, I than good God for having arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery” (Chopin), which brings him to his epiphany. The fact that he did not know could be because of his parents’ choice to raise him abroad where the stigma of slavery did not exist. Maybe she was light skinned enough that she could pass for a white woman. We may never know how this accomplishment was carried out, but it is evident that Armand now knew, that although his son was bi-racial, it was his lineage, not Desiree’s, at fault. So his choice cost him his family and his parents’ choice could have very well cost him his pride. The story does not elude to the events that came next so the reader can only