Analysis Of The Blind Man By Raymond Carver

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Carver progresses the narrator’s tone throughout the story, from disdainful to cautious to introspective by developing his relationship with Robert, and forcing them to interact with each other, to express that false presumptions about strangers, based on someone else’s experience or stories, can be misleading. In the beginning the narrator’s tone is derisive, as though he’s mocking Robert’s being blind. The narrator sees Robert as a nuisance, getting in the way of him and his wife, whose past relationships with Robert and other men seem to irritate the narrator. “My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed…A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to,” (Carver 1). The narrator is inexperienced …show more content…

Carver portrays the narrator as someone who doesn’t have much experience with the blind and who doesn’t feel inclined to have that experience. The narrator also alludes to a past relationship between his wife and an army officer. “Her officer – why should he have a name? he was the childhood sweetheart, and what more does he want? – came home from somewhere, found her, and called the ambulance,” (Carver 2). Carver adds this flashback to show that the narrator is upset about his wife’s past romantic relationships and suspects that Robert was one of them. For example, the narrator says, “- why should he have name?” which portrays his anger towards the idea of his wife with another man. When describing the story of Robert and his wife the narrator sees their relationship as a little strange,

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