Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” uses storytelling to establish an emotional connection with the reader emphasizing a message of positive transformation through human contact. This short story blends the qualities of minimalism with the poetic emotionalism of realism to provide a narrative about attitudes and relationships. Although this story is not the classical example of minimalism, Carver uses the negative element of emptiness to portray this style. On the surface, this is a simple story told from the viewpoint of the narrator, a close-minded husband who lacks deep connection in his life, “‘I don’t have any blind friends,’ I said. ‘You don’t have any friends,’ she said” (Carver, 745). Initially the narrow-minded narrator paints a feeling …show more content…
She agreed to this. She told me he touched his finders to every part of her face, her nose – even her neck! She never forgot it. She even tried to write a poem about it” (Carver, 744). This moment incited something in his wife that was so profound she felt a need to write about it. The narrator obviously lacks this deep connection with his wife as they seem to fill their days with a pattern of watching television, drinking, eating, and smoking pot, displaying no real sense of connection. Although the narrator seems to desire this connection as he feels an emptiness inside, “‘I guess I don’t believe in it. In anything. Sometimes it’s hard’”(Carver, 752). Once again human contact is key as seen in the culmination of the final scene, as the two men sit side by side, their hands linked, drawing a cathedral on a paper bag. This moment of human contact invokes and awakening of senses in the narrator, despite having closed eyes, his mind is now open. “My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything. ‘It’s really something,’I said”(Carver,
In Raymond Carver’s story, “Cathedral,” the story tells of how a close outside relationship can threaten a marriage by provoking insecurities, aggravating communication barriers, and creating feelings of invasion of privacy. The husband in the story is given the gift of seeing the cathedral through a blind man’s eyes. Although the title suggests that the story is about a cathedral, it is really about two men who come together and share a vision and realize it is he who is blind. As the story begins, the character of the husband has a negative personality. He lacks compassion, is narrow-minded, and is jealous of his wife’s friendship with a blind man named Robert.
Upon reading Raymond Carver's short story of the Cathedral one will notice the literary devices used in the short story. When analyzing the story completely, one then understands the themes, motifs, metaphors, and the overall point of the piece. This leaves the reader with an appreciation of the story and a feeling of complete satisfaction.
In the story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, the main character, goes through a major personal transformation. At the beginning of the story, his opinions of others are filled with stereotypes, discrimination and prejudice. Through interaction with his wife's blind friend Robert, his attitude and outlook on life changes. Although at first he seemed afraid to associate with a blind man, Robert's outgoing personality left him with virtually no choice. During Robert's visit, he proved to be a normal man, and showed the speaker that by closing his eyes, he could open his mind.
The point of view from the narrators perspective, highlights how self-absorbed and narrow-minded he is. “They’d married, lived and worked together, slept together—had sex, sure—and then the blind man had to bury her. All this without his having ever seen what the goddamned woman looked like. It was beyond my understanding” (Carver...
Raymond Carver utilizes his character of the husband, who is also the narrator, in his short story "Cathedral." From the beginning of the story the narrator has a negative personality. He lacks compassion, has a narrow mind, is detached emotionally from others, and is jealous of his wife's friendship with a blind man named Robert. He never connects with anyone emotionally until the end of this story.
The husband in Raymond Carvers “Cathedral” wasn’t enthusiastic about his wife’s old friend, whom was a blind man coming over to spend the night with them. His wife had kept in touch with the blind man since she worked for him in Seattle years ago. He didn’t know the blind man; he only heard tapes and stories about him. The man being blind bothered him, “My idea of blindness came from the 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. (Carver 137)” The husband doesn’t suspect his ideas of blind people to be anything else. The husband is already judging what the blind man will be like without even getting to actually know him. It seems he has judged too soon as his ideas of the blind man change and he gets a better understanding of not only the blind man, but his self as well.
What makes a brotherhood, and how does the short story "Cathedral” relates to brotherhood? In the “Cathedral”, Robert and the Narrator connect over a drawing. The drawing help changes the outcome of the Narrator thoughts of blind people. "Cathedral" helps us understand brotherhood and how you don 't have to be blood-related to join a brotherhood. In the "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, you can experience a newly form brotherhood by two completely opposite characters who are able to form an alliance. The Narrator lacks awareness of others, but with Robert’s help, the Narrator is able to finally see the world in from a different point of view, and this opens him up to create a bond with Robert. In "Cathedral", you see the unity between two men,
In the short story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, the seemingly judgmental narrator is faced with meeting a blind man, named Robert. The narrator sees himself as superior to others and in this instance especially to the blind. Due to the narrator’s pretentious attitude, tension between the blind and himself is revealed when the narrator says, “[m]y idea of blindness came from the movies” (279). In Carver’s short story “Cathedral”, the tension between literal and metaphorical blindness is most evident through the narrator’s insensitivity and bitterness towards the blind man. The character of the narrator progresses from a closed minded individual, to someone who can look outside of his own perspective.
The unnamed narrator of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” poses as an unreliable narrator for his unaccepting nature towards blind people along with his ignorant perception of many realities in his life that Carver presents for the reader to take into question. The narrator holds prejudice against Robert, a blind man whom the narrator’s wife worked with ten years earlier and eventually befriends. Unperceptive to many of the actualities in his own life, the narrator paints an inaccurate picture of Robert that he will soon find to be far from the truth.
The short story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver is about a woman who has a blind friend who comes to visit her and her husband. Although the husband’s eye sight is normal, he is in the beginning of this story, the one who is "blind." This is shown through the husband’s words and actions, as he is dealing with Robert, the blind man, it is shown that the husband does not understand what Robert’s blindness means or how it affects him as a human being. At first Robert makes the husband very uncomfortable, for the husband does not know what to say or do around the blind visitor. As the story progresses, we can see a change in the husband. Towards the end, the husband, who is also the narrator of the story, seems to be able to see Robert as a person
Certain judgments are harmless, such as remembering one by an article of clothing that stands out, while other judgments prove ones character is flawed. In “Cathedral”, the narrator is portrayed as very insensitive when he mocks his wife’s poem about an experience she had with Robert when he touched her face. He says “I didn’t think much of the poem. Of course, I didn’t tell her that” (Cathedral 210). This shows that he lacks insight and understanding of even his own wife. If the narrator can’t even connect with his wife’s feelings, it is inferred that he also has trouble connecting with others feelings as well. In a similar instance, when the narrator’s wife educates him about Robert’s wife’s passing he says, “Her name was Beulah. Beulah! That’s a name for a colored woman” (Cathedral 210). This highlights the narrator’s lack of perspective, as a sympathetic response would not have involved the origin of her name, but rather how the deceased spouse was handling the loss. Soon after, the narrator further proves his insensitivity to both his wife’s thoughts and Robert’s situation when he says “Right then my wife filled me in with more detail than I cared to know” (Cathedral 213). The author suggests that a dramatic change occurs after Robert and the narrator draw the cathedral by choosing the narrators closing words to be “It’s really something” (Cathedral 228). Because of this and the fact that he actively participates in the cathedral drawing, reader infers that the narrator truly does change his attitude towards Robert and perhaps his perspective on life as
When people chose whether to look or to see, they are choosing their way of interpreting things. By looking at something or someone you are interpreting them as for what it is, but to see takes a greater appreciation. In “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, he exhibits the difference between looking at the physical aspect of a person or thing and seeing them with insight. Carver displays this through the characterization of the narrator and Robert, the irony in the narrator’s point of view on Robert’s marriage, and how the cathedral symbolizes the narrator change in seeing perception.
Isolation of the human heart results in the inability to connect and take part in a greater existence, whereas blindness of the human eye gives way to the truth and tenderness of humanity found in the wonders of this world. In Raymond Carver’s short story, “Cathedral”, the nameless narrator seems to exhibit behavioral patterns of an addict, tending to detach himself from the plot and all relationships that he continuously fails to confront throughout life. The central figure, who abhors the blind, is ignorant to his own constraints, which prevent him from recognizing the traces of transcendency in humanity that lies beyond the temptation of physical pleasure. Through the utilization of the communion model, by way of first-person narration,
This story is about how the narrator is unable to see what life is really giving him and finds it through a blind man’s eyes, the friend of his wife. Cathedral is a touching story, in my opinion, as it reflects on what many of us, society, take for granted. It shows how important it is to give people a chance and to be able to see the true meaning of what surrounds us even if it is not important to our personal life. Throughout the short story, Carver uses several figurative language to expose the theme of the story.
Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral" is a reflection on the process of human perception that underscores its essence. By means of the careful selection of characters, symbols, and motives, the author sheds light on the goals of perception and considers it on the basis of understanding art, which provides the reader with an insight to the profound difference between looking and seeing, two successive stages that complement each other. In this vein, it is worth exploring the concept of perception, framed in the literary settings through the prism of the aptitude to shape the observed into valuable experience. The art of perception is thus a complex process not only of hearing, looking, and touching things, it is an ability to see the depth of the observed, understand it, analyze it, and form a critical behavioral response. Through the