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Use Double Vision and Epiphany to Enhance Your Writing
When most people hear the phrase “double vision,” they naturally think of seeing double images, a situation which may occur when one is drunk or, perhaps, injured in some way. I recall an old cartoon, for example, where a boxer got hit so hard that when he looked at his opponent, he saw two faces instead of one and wasn’t sure which one to hit. And while a physical case of double vision can be serious and disconcerting, you can use a literary double vision in your writing to share alternative perspectives and an additional insight, often called an epiphany.
With a literary double vision, you’re essentially looking at an experience or a situation from two different perspectives: usually from a youthful/innocent view first followed by an older/experienced view later on. A good example of double vision occurs in the short poem “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden. In the first 12 lines of the poem, the narrator describes from a child’s perspective the tasks that his father performed for him: “my father got up early . . . made banked fires blaze . . . had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well” (291).
