Epiphany is a method writers use to depict a moment of sudden very strong emotions, something that hit the character unexpectedly and change the standing point of the characters within the stories. .
In the completely different three stories Guests of the Nation, Everyday Use, and Sonnys Blues, we can find this methodology in many places. Good and bad, the characters all arrive at same insight about humans and world, which is to go along with duty, customary, tradition, or to jump over all of those and go by heart, go with free wills.
In Guests of the Nation, the main character, Bonaparte, who was an Irish guard, became true friends with two English hostages, Belcher and Hawkins. Since the location was at a local prison that was far from where the real war were taking place, both of those Irish guards and English hostages took the war less seriously, and they didnt antagonize each other. However, when Irish found out that their soldiers who were taking as prisoners in England where killed, he had to ignore the true friendship and obey the duty, which was to kill Belcher and Hawkins. .
Bonaparte had epiphanies and wished that the two English men would do something so that he doesnt have to kill them. He wished they would fight against him or simply run away. That way, he would be able to have excuses not to kill his friends. However, the two English men didnt really do anything. That caused Bonaparte have no choice but kill them. He could go with his free will and ignore the duty, but he didnt. And, he killed them. .
This instant, his whole standing point changed. Even though he and his fellow Irish guards didnt speak a ward, when the old woman of the house questioned what they did to the two English men, it was deeply engraved to their heart. And Bonaparte was dispatched from human world. With me it was as if the patch of bog where the Englishmen were was a million miles away, and even Noble and the old woman, mumbling behind me, and the birds and the bloody stars were all far away, and I was somehow very small and very lost and lonely like a child astray in the snow.
