Raymond Carver with Cathedral and John Updike with A&P

Raymond Carver with “Cathedral” and John Updike with “A&P”

“Cathedral” and A&P both short stories written during the same century. But even though they both introduce stereotypical characters that somehow change their view of the world, they have many more different aspects. The stories differ in atmosphere and the quantity of people involve in each story.

The story “Cathedral” only took place in a family house with only the husband, wife who can be qualified as a static character tried to kill herself in the past, and finally the blind man. Unlike in the short story “A&P” the event took place in a grocery store with Sammy, the three girls and finally the manager who is also a static character, nothing special with him, just the typical manager the “man”. The short story “Cathedral” is protagonist is a married man who have difficulties making connections with people and even his wife, and he seems to have problems maybe a little jealous of the connection his wife is able to make with other people. “A&P” is protagonist is Sammy, an eighteen years old boy who works in a grocery store, and he hates his job. The two stories do not express the same stereotype values, the husband in “Cathedral” is being stereotype against the blinds, and he seems to have his mind made about how all blind people are, so in the short story “Cathedral” the blinds represent the stereotype. In “A&P”, for Sammy it is the young girls. The catalyst change in both stories is unexpected and it is a disturbance of the characters everyday routine. When the girls in bathing suits entered in the store, Sammy was really surprised at the girls’ careless dresscode or behavior: “You know, it’s one thing to have a girl in a bathing suit down on the beach . . . but anot...

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...specially because there is not really a dress code to go to the grocery store. This analysis will compare and contrast the epiphanies of Sammy and the husband in "A&P" and "Cathedral" respectively. At a point Sammy decided to stand up for the girls, maybe he felt some sort of attraction toward the girls, so he wanted to do something meaningful to maybe catch the girls’ attention. He stood up for the girls, and quitted his job. Only then the change in his life occurs when he realized that from now one things are going to be really different.

Works Cited

Hendrickson, Joel William. http://www.lonestar.edu/13775.htm. n.d. Document. 16 March 2014.

John Updike 14. A&P, Backpack literature edited. California : X.J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia edited, 2012.

Raymond Carver 77. Cathedral, backpack literature edited. California: X.J> Kennedy, Dana Giona edited, 2012.