...Raymond Carver's short story, "Cathedral" is narrated by a man who is somewhat apprehensive about a visit from his wife's blind friend, Robert. It is told in the first person which helps set his prejudice and plain ignorant point of view towards Robert's disability. The protagonist is a flawed man, but certainly reliable in his storytelling because the reader experiences his unfiltered thoughts and see where his bias stems from in addition to watching how they influence his actions. As a result, his point of view highlights his positive spiritual metamorphosis over the evening spent with Robert. One would consider the narrator being blind in his own way. At the start, he is portrayed as a man who lacks a sense of empathy towards people. He...
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...Ignorance is Not Bliss Cathedral, written by Raymond Carver, is a short fiction essay with the narrator as the real protagonist that goes through a significant transformation. The author’s choice of point of view as well as, the theme and symbolism shown in Cathedral provide evidence to support the protagonist’s epiphany of overcoming his own prejudices. An important theme includes ignorance and understanding and the main symbol of the story is the cathedral itself. These components of the story are important in bringing out the narrator’s epiphany, where he comes to accept people for how they are and realize that he is not superior to someone who has an impairment. Carver chose first person as the point of view for this story. First person narrators are characters who tell the story from the perspective of “I” or “We”. This point of view gives the reader a chance to experience the story how the narrator sees and understands the world. In Cathedral, our narrator speaks in short, chopped sentences in the beginning. This shows the reader that he is lacking self-awareness, arrogant, and/or insecure. The narrator only sees Robert as a blind man, from the start. Throughout the story as the narrator gets to know Robert better, he becomes more descriptive with his sentences and his structure is not as choppy. This is important in showing his change of traits. This demonstrates to the readers that the narrator grows from ignorant to more open-minded and accepting, especially of...
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...Cathedral By Raymond Carver 1981 The readings this week were very diverse and captivating, but the one that I chose was Cathedral by Raymond Carver. In his short story Cathedral, Raymond Carver provides a picture of a man who is self-absorbed and insensitive. The theme of the story is acceptance and self-discovery. The main character in the story doesn’t seem to realize that he is prejudice of the blind. The fact that his wife’s friend is blind bothers him. He has never known anyone blind and has preconceived ideas of how blind people behave, only by virtue of seeing them in movies. I believe that he also shows signs of jealousy of anyone from his wife’s past. The characterization of the main character and point of view are the literary elements I will use to demonstrate how they contribute to the theme.. As the story unfolds, we see the gradual change in the main character as he discovers that being blind is not as debilitating as he once believed. The theme of self-discovery and acceptance of others is used to show how some people are so insensitive to others that they isolate and judge them before they understand the true nature of the person. The main character is totally self-absorbed; every past experience his wife has had is something that he would rather not think about. He is a self-insulated man with no friends, save his wife (Nesset, 1994). He wants to think of her as his wife and only his wife. He doesn’t want to know about the blind man or her first husband...
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...see is more, or less, than meets the eye. Interpretation of visual stimuli happens automatically for most. Just point your eyes in the direction of what you want to see and the image instantaneously appears. The inner, invisible, intangible characteristics require more than receptors and neurons to visualize. Thought and personal investment are required in the visualization of the intangible. In “Cathedral”, Raymond Carver suggests blindness is often an affliction of the heart and soul and not the eyes. Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” is a short story about a husband’s journey to enlightenment. A longtime friend of the wife comes to visit after the death of his wife. The wife meets the blind man, Robert, ten years prior while looking for a summer job. She becomes his assistant. The wife reads briefs, reports, and helps organize the blind man’s office. Over the years the wife and blind man keep in touch; corresponding by sending audio tapes through the mail (Carver). The visit from the blind man is not something the husband is excited about. He remains disconnected from the conversation most of the evening. When the wife falls to sleep, the husband is forced to engage with the blind man. With the persistence of the blind man, the husband engages in a conversation about cathedrals. It is through the process of describing the cathedrals to the blind man that the life of the...
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...What is the Theme? Hollie Ott Introduction to Literature Instructor Lenore Gallucci-Stevenson December 3, 2012 What is the Theme Over the next few paragraphs I want to show what I feel is the theme in the short story The Cathedral by Raymond Carver. This story told in the first person point of view, has a supported theme based on the characters of the story, the symbolism, and the tone. The main character, which is the narrator of the story, is an insensitive man, who cannot come to grips with his wife's distant relationship with a blind man named Robert. Throughout the course of this story the narrator is able to start to understand more that his assumptions of how a blind person should be is not necessarily the way it is at all, and eventually finds himself teaching the blind man how to see a Cathedral. Let me begin with writing in the first person point of view and how it has contributed to the them of this story. First person point of view means the narrator participates in the story by describing their personal actions and thoughts (Clugston, 2010). According to The Writers Craft writing in first person point of view is the easiest for readers because it is more intimate (The Writer's Craft, n.d.). In the Cathedral, the point of view contributes greatly to the theme because one can relate to the feelings of Robert, the wife and the narrator through their conversations. You can sense his hostility toward the blind man as he describes his preconceived idea of...
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...Cathedral A common and natural thing that we all do when we meet new people for the first time is to put them into boxes. By putting people into boxes we create prejudices, which is very hard to get rid off. Especially if we meet someone who has a handicap we start to get nervous and many hides their “fear”, thinking that the person with the handicap can’t see or feel our discomfort. But a blind person for example, can easily sense out fear and insecurity because he has a bigger awareness. But if we act nervous around blind people when we meet he/she for the first time, we should act different every time we meet new people. Because there are many ways of being blind and most people are blind to a feeling or emotion, that affect us more than we think. Raymond Carver has in his short story “Cathedral” portrayed this kind of blindness, where the seeing person is blinder than the actually blind person. The short story starts in media res and is set in the present. Our main character is a first person narrator, where we see things from his point of view. He has limited knowledge, which means that he works as an observer, where he doesn’t know anything about the other characters’ inside. It helps us understand why he has a hard time adjusting and accepting the blind man, because we can only hear his thoughts. The language is informal and very everyday like with a lot of dialogs. The dialogs affect the story because, it is in the dialogs that our main character develops, and...
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...Analysis of The Cathedral In the short story Cathedral by Raymond Carver, Carver uses the narrator's doubtful tone and 1st person point of view in order to portray how prejudice and bias is a result of false assumptions based on common stereotypes about the blind. The story ironically shows how the blind man, Robert, is readily open to new experiences and ideas while the narrator, a man who has all of his senses is largely limited by his ways of thinking. In a way, Carver forces the reader to infer that blindness isn’t always a result of physiology, but sometimes a result of one's ignorant perceptions. The narrator is blessed with the ability to see, however, he learns by the end of the story that he will never be able to see through the eyes of a blind man. The first few paragraphs of the story are essential because it quickly sets the mood for what the narrator's attitude and character will be like for a large portion of the story. Carver uses first person to display the narrator's feeling of bigotry and to ultimately show the change of feeling he has towards Robert by the end of the story. Carver’s first sentence of the story is already foretelling of the narrators bias towards the blind man. It reads, “This blind man, an old friend of my wife’s, he was on his way to spend the night. His wife had died.” By having to state that the man is blind, rather than just an old friend, the narrator is already revealing that he holds a prejudice against the blind. At the beginning...
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...Nineteen” and Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral”, the protagonists exhibit a kind of selfishness. Although they share this similarity, they present their selfishness in different ways, and ultimately make very different life decisions based upon this. The Rawling family had “everything right, appropriate, and what everyone would wish for, if they could choose.” The husband and wife, Matthew and Susan, had a picture-perfect marriage, “…people to whom others came for advice.” Despite this, Susan felt a “certain flatness.” She was endlessly looking forward to the day when their twins would go off to school for the first time, and then all the children would be “off her hands.” When this day came, however, she then resented every moment when they were home, especially during the holidays. This eventually led her to spiral out of control, constantly in search of perfect solitude. Even while taking a walking holiday in Wales, she felt as though “the telephone wire [was] holding to her duty like a leash.” (p. 880). .” Abandoning her family altogether, she discovers a dingy hotel. In Room Nineteen she would sit in the armchair for hours, selfishly enjoying her solitude. “To Room Nineteen” ends as Susan commits the selfish act of suicide, deserting her family once and for all. The protagonist in “Cathedral” displayed clear ignorance throughout a large portion of the short story, and it was especially easy to focus on due to the author’s use of first person point of view. Despite this,...
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...In Raymond Carver’s story Cathedral, our narrator recounts his first meeting with a blind man using a first-person point of view, “the main character is telling the story from their point of view and of course using the 'I' form. This viewing of events largely through a character's eyes is called an internal point of view. We may not experience everything they do but events are mostly seen through their eyes, with an insight into their thoughts and feelings and often with comments on the situation,” (Sanger, 1998, pg 13). Robert is no ordinary blind man though, he and the narrator’s wife are friends and Robert has come for an overnight stay. “This blind man, an old friend of my wife’s, he was on his way to spend the night,” (cited in Clugston, 2010, sec. 8.3, para 2). The narrator initially sets the theme of the story with his stereotype of blindness, “My idea of blindness came from movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to,” (cited in Clugston, 2010, sec. 8.3, para 2). The narrator’s stereotypical thoughts continue throughout the story, “I remember having read somewhere that the blind didn’t smoke because, as speculation had it, they couldn’t see the smoke they exhaled. I thought I knew that much and that much only about blind people. But this blind man smoked his cigarette down to the nubbin and then lit another one,” (cited in Clugston,...
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...Introduction The task of leadership is not one of superiority or dictating by any means; it is rather a form of the humble servitude of those whom the leader is positioned to guide. A quality leader takes his or her position with the utmost responsibility to provide access for the masses to express their concerns, and hopefully respond in a justifiable manner that allows for the most favorable outcome for the largest portion of the ‘followers’. Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral,” Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” President Abraham Lincoln, and President John F. Kennedy all had characteristics of great leadership. The University Code of Integrity is also one of the examples showing the importance of integrity for a fair leader to embrace in his or her duties. It is with the use of these examples that I plan to...
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...Mallory Russell 06/12/15 Comparison Essay ENG 102 Online “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver versus “A + P” by John Updike In the short stories “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver and “A + P” by John Updike the protagonists experience an epiphany that change their restricted way of thinking. The main character, “Sammy” in John Updike’s, “A + P” is a teenage boy working in the town grocery store. Sammy experiences an epiphany when he decides to quit his job at the grocery store. He quit because he believed that it was wrong of his boss to treat customers poorly due to any pre-conceived notion that was determined by what the customer looks like. Raymond Carver’s main character named “the husband” in his story “Cathedral” experiences an epiphany when he realizes he has wrongly stereotyped, a visiting friend of his wife’s named “Robert” because he blind. The theme of both of the stories, “Cathedral” and “A+P” is that the main characters are influenced and motivated by other individuals within the story to change their close-minded thinking. In “Cathedral” the character Robert, served as the husband’s motivation for change when he comes to stay with the husband and his wife. The three teenage girls in “A + P”, serve as the motivation to change Sammy’s way of thinking when they enter the grocery store dressed risqué to the grocery store’s standards. Raymond Carver portrayed the husband in “Cathedral” as a cynical person from the beginning of the story. The husband’s wife enjoyed sharing...
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... Communication is Key Communication is when someone gives or receives from another person information about that person's needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge, or affective states. Human beings need to communicate in order to share and makes other understand their sense of self and awareness of who they are. Expressing and listening others self-concept are essential for successful relationships in any area of our lives. Raymond Carver, an American short story writer and poet, was always concerned with the ways in which human beings communicate or fail to communicate with each other and how that affects people’s lives. Carver found the way to express this concern through stories such as “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” and “Cathedral”. He presents situations where the characters of these stories had difficulties communicating their feelings. Caver is known for his distinctive and well...
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...The story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver is based around a narrator talking in first person about his feelings towards a relationship that his wife has with a blind man. We can extract a lot of the narrator’s emotions about the blind man, as well as the narrator’s personality because Carver uses different types of characterization. Carver’s uses first person narration as a method of revealing the narrator’s dynamic and complex characteristics. This can be seen through the use of language in the story and the change in the narrator’s perspective. Carver intentionally wrote this story in a first person point of view for the audience to grasp the complexity of the narrator’s personality through his language. When analyzing the personality of a central character, the language makes an impact on how the reader views the character. In this story, the narrator is the central character and all events, thoughts and feelings are shared directly from the narrator himself. Depending on how the passage is worded, a different personality can be inferred. For example, in the beginning of the story, the narrator has a habit of interrupting his own thoughts frequently with defensive statements and criticisms. When the narrator talks about his wife’s childhood sweetheart, he breaks in, “Why should he have a name? He was a childhood sweetheart, what more does he want?” (pg 729). A narration by a central character is essentially a thought process that readers have access to. The narrator’s language...
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...had once said, “Every couple needs to argue every now and then. Just to prove that the relationship is strong enough to survive. Long-term relationships, the ones that matter, are all about weathering the peaks and valleys.” Conflict is a very vital portion to any relationship, whether it’s a commitment or even just a friendship. It shows that each individual cares for the well being of the other. It is how the couple arrives at the conclusion of each problem faced that determines if the relationship is of value or not. In works of literature, such as; “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, and “Good People” by David Foster Wallace, the reader is introduced to couples who are at a disagreement with each other. Even though these are just works of fiction, each story portrays factors that compare to the actions taken in a real modern day relationship. In Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” the reader is introduced to an un-named narrator and...
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...Understand Me When you think of blind people, what is the first thing that comes to mind? For the narrator in “Cathedral”, he thinks of the stereotypical blind people that one would see in movies or TV programs. “Cathedral” tells a story depicting stereotypes and ignorance through the eyes of the narrator when faced with an uncomfortable situation with a blind man. He is not depicted as a stereotypical blind man, but as a normal human. He shows the narrator along with the readers that being blind doesn’t hold him back from living life at the fullest. In Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral”, he uses a blind man and the narrator not only to illustrate how stereotypes, specifically towards the blind, can prevent one from seeing and comprehending...
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