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Literary Analysis of Cathedral by Raymond Carver
The theme of cathedral by raymond carver
The theme of cathedral by raymond carver
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Recommended: Literary Analysis of Cathedral by Raymond Carver
In Raymond Carver's short story, "Cathedral", we follow along with the narrator as he unknowingly describes his own prejudice , in which he is kept from appreciating more than can be seen and ultimately begins to understand that he is the one who is blind and unfulfilled through his interaction with a blind man. The metaphors of the bound men, found in Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave", can be related to the ignorance and prejudice of the unfulfilled narrator of "Cathedral", as the bound men suffer from a literal blindness and the narrator of "Cathedral" suffers from a metaphorical blindness, both of which will keep them from the truth and skew their perception of reality. Carver uses jealousy, prejudice, and substance abuse to develop a character, similar to the bound prisoners, that is devoid of self-fulfillment and figuratively blind in his relationship with the world around him.
The jealous nature of the narrator begins immediately in the story and continues throughout. This jealous attitude against the blind stranger is pervasive and he cannot begin to understand the qualities in the relationship between his wife and the blind man or why his wife has continued this friendship. As the narrator describes what lead to the meeting between the blind man and his wife, he purposefully omits the name of her ex-husband asking, "why should he have a name?" implying that this man also does not matter (Carver 356) . His emphasis is placed on the final experience that his wife had with the blind man, almost insinuating that their relationship may have passed beyond friendship. It is not until the end of the story that the narrator no longer fears the relationship of Robert with his wife. The narrator's wife is asleep in her robe,...
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...on to the qualities that he is trying to translate. His vision to the literal world around him has failed him; he now has to resort to the blind man's language of touch. Through the interaction of touching hands and drawing the cathedral, the narrator's blindness is revealed and he no longer feels bound by his world.
Carver uses the themes of jealousy, prejudice, and substance abuse, not only because most readers can easily associate with one or more of these problems, but also because they can be used to create a character that is ignorant of and detached from the world around them. This blindness to reality can be related to Plato's "Allegory of a Cave", where the prisoners are limited in their world to only what they can easily view. Reality may not be just what is presented to us as there can exist a world that is unseen by many.
He constantly complains that “a blind man in my house was not something [he looked] forward to” (362). The close friendship between the narrator’s wife and Robert provokes his insecurities. This friendship has lasted for ten years and during those years, they have exchanged countless tapes regarding experiences they have gone through. Because of this, her husband feels “she [has] told him everything or it seems” (363) about their relationship. Upon the arrival of his wife’s friend, the husband is ultimately uncomfortable around Robert because he does not know how to communicate with or act around him.
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 narrator in Raymond Carver’s "Cathedral" is not a particularly sensitive man. I might describe him as self-centered, superficial, and egotistical. And while his actions certainly speak to these points, it is his misunderstanding of the people and the relationships presented to him in this story which show most clearly his tragic flaw: while Robert is physically blind, it is the narrator who cannot clearly see the world around him.
As a result of his inability to relate with Robert, he thinks his behaviors are odd, and is unable to understand the relationship he has with his wife. His wife worked for this blind man many years ago, reading him reports and case studies, and organizing his "...little office" (Carver 98) in the county's social-service department. He remem¬ bers a story his wife told about the last day she worked for him. The blind man asked her if he could touch her face, and she agreed.
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...
In Raymond Carver's Cathedral “appear...extreme versions of insularity,from a husband's self-imposed confinement to a living room in 'Preservation' to another's pathetic reluctance to leave an attic garret in 'Careful'” (Meyer). One of Carver's chief goals in cathedral is to criticize people who fail, in one way or another, to communicate with society. In almost every short story, the main character suffers from insularity due to a horrible event in his or her life, alcoholism, or a failure to consider others' thoughts and feelings. The stories, “Careful,” “Preservation,” “Cathedral,” and “The Compartment” easily represent the entire novel's theme of the inability to relate with others. Each of these stories shows a slightly different degree of affliction, circumstance, and character types making the entire novel effective to a broad audience. Carver wants people to stop thinking that “[the loss of the ability to interact with others] is something that happens to other people” (Carver 25)
Throughout the majority of the story Carver uses a variety of devices to portray the narrator negatively. One reason is that he lacks compassion. At the beginning of the story he says, "I wasn?t enthusiastic about his [the blind man?s] visit. He [the blind man] was no one I knew. And his [the blind man] being blind bothered me."
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.
The narrator is uneasy with the thought of Robert staying in his house and believes that he is superior to the blind man. Even before an introduction is satisfied between the narrator and Robert, the narrator is a bit disturbed to have Robert staying in his house. Within the first paragraph of the story, the narrator’s agitation towards Robert is made apparent. “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (Carver 33). The narrator assumes from Robert’s blindness that he is going to just be a nuisance to have to host because
At first glance, one might assume Raymond Carver’s "Cathedral" illustrates the awakening of an insensitive and insulated husband to the world of a blind man. However, this literal awakening does not account for the fact that the husband awakens also to a world of religious insight, of which he has also been blind. The title and story structure are the first indicators of the importance of the religious thesis. It is also revealed when one examines the language and actions of the characters in the story. Finally, Carver’s previous and subsequent writings give an overall background for the argument that "Cathedral" has a significant religious import.
From the beginning of his tale, the husband is quite bland on the subject of love. This is present when he tells the part about his wife's first husband, even going as far as to say the man doesn't deserve to be named because "he was the childhood sweetheart, and what more does he want" (348). When he tells of Beulah, Robert's wife, and her tragic death, he shows no compassion in mocking her for marrying a blind man. He even asks if the woman was a "Negro" because of her name. His materialistic views shine through when he feels actually pity for her because she could "never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one" (349). His lack of compassion for the tale of the blind man's marriage tells the reader that maybe the husband himself doesn't believe in love. When he refers to his wife's first husband as "this man who'd first enjoyed her favors" and "shrugs" when he thinks his wife is disappointed in his actions, it informs the reader he may look at relationships, even his own, as more of a business deal than a devotion of love (348, 350). His wry humor is major indication of his sarcastic character. He even makes a crack to his wife about the blind man befo...
The husband is self-absorbed, ignorant, and insensitive. He is only concerned with how Robert's visit will affect him. The husband's insensitivity is revealed early on in the story. He admits "A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to" (104). He even goes a step further and suggest to his wife they should go bowling. Although he is insensitive, he is polite. He asks Robert if he would like a drink and tries to engage in small talk. Yet, he shows his insensitivity again when he asks him what side of the train he sat on during his travel.
In my opinion, I believe that the short story, Cathedral, is a clear representation that a person can change and can be able to understand personal feeling and emotions without trying to actually see them and/or touch them. Also, Carver makes the narrator seem as if he is a real person that the reader can relate to. Specifically, when the narrator feels awkward about his wife bringing the blind man for a visit or when he finally meets the blind man and offers him a joint. These experiences that the narrator has are real experiences that the reader may at one point also feel or encountered. Overall, the short story is one that should be read by all college students as it is a good genre and easy to read as well as to understand and relate.
The husband's view on the world at the start of the story was a narrow one that was based on his ignorance, which prevented him from gaining understanding. His long held misconceptions, especially about blindness, defined his expectations about things he did not understand. For instance, when the husband found out that Robert was coming to stay, he disliked the idea of someone who was blind, let alone someone who he didn't know, coming to visit and the husband's "idea of blindness came from the movies." He saw the blind people as people who "moved slowly and never laughed." This was not the limit of his ignorance as it was further displayed by his constant referral of Robert as "the blind man" and his assumption of Robert's deceased wife being a black person based solely on the name of Beulah. This assumption display his bigotry is not limited to Robert's blindness and that differences that he did not understan...