After analyzing the life of Raymond Carver. It made sense why he wrote Cathedral.
Carver wanted people to see the differences between looking and seeing, even physical vision. His book (Cathedral) explained, sometimes we need to look at the huge picture rather than details of it. Robert (The Blind Man) in the story; was being judged by his friend’s husband. The husband was taking the world’s side of everything rather then thinking for himself. Back in the 80’s, disability used to be less tolerant then today. People back then looked at disability as a bad thing, although they still do now. Carver explained more about how we need to be more tolerance and understanding in our thoughts, he shows this in Cathedral. Coming back to looking and seeing.
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When I received special education services, peers and teachers were bothered. Peers acted diffidently because they knew I was “special”. The reason I used “special” is because to them, I was one of many special students in the school. Teachers looked at me diffidently rather then treating me like one of the other peers. Yes I had a disability, however they did not need to treat me diffidently. Robert was treated different in the story, the narrator was scared at first, he asked stupid questions, although Robert went along with it. Some of my peers and teachers were never supportive, I was known as one of the emotional students, because I was in the Emotional Impairment classroom. Just having that label was difficult to live back. It like how the narrator said “the blind move slowly and never laughed.” (Carver, Cathedral). Peers always thought EI students were unstable and violent, my thoughts as well. In sixth grade, a EI student bit the EI teacher, that is why I thought the same as my peer. Although now I was an EI student and now they thought I was that kid. By junior and senior year, I never was treated diffidently. The teachers and students understood that I was not emotionally impaired, I was just placed there on mistake, which I was. Although, I still had the label, which caused many opportunities to not become available to …show more content…
Robert changed the narrator’s thoughts about blind people after he showed the narrator that he was like him. I relate to him because after I was in sports, although some teachers were still judgmental. The students treated me like one of them and looked over my “label” disability. My peers never thought of me as the EI student anymore, they saw me as an Athlete. Back to my thesis, Disability should not be looked at in one classification; it should be base on the individual student. My disability, which was later removed by the State of Michigan, was a blessing to me. My hard work paid off and I’m looking forward to what life begins to me in the next four to five years getting my Bachelors in Special Education, English Education, and Physical
In “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, a blind man named Robert help Bub, a person unable to understand or place the feelings of others in front of his own , open his eyes and realize how to consider others feelings. In the story, Robert comes to to visit Bub’s wife after his wife passes away. Bub is not looking forward to his encounter with Robert. As the story progresses, Bub is forced to interact with Robert in ways that seem foreign to him. Bub’s difference interactions with Robert builds up to the both of them drawing a cathedral together, which leads to Bub being changed and him placing Roberts points of view ahead of his own. Bub believes the world revolves around himself and lacks the ability to consider others feeling ahead of his own,
The narrator is not only insensitive, but ignorant as well. His beliefs about the blind are based on only what he has seen in the movies. He believes that the blind are led by seeing eye dogs, wear sunglasses, carry walking sticks, and move very slowly. Robert does none of these things, much to the narrator's surprise. When Robert lights a cigarette, the narrator is surprised.
The narrator is biased against the blind from the beginning. For instance, he stereotypes all blind people thinking they ...
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.
In Raymond Carver's "Cathedral," the husband's view of blind men is changed when he encounters his wife's long time friend, Robert. His narrow minded views and prejudice thoughts of one stereotype are altered by a single experience he has with Robert. The husband is changed when he thinks he personally sees the blind man's world. Somehow, the blind man breaks through all of the husband's jealousy, incompetence for discernment, and prejudgments in a single moment of understanding.
His, "idea of blindness came from the movies", where, "...the blind move slowly and never laughed" (Carver 98). These misconceptions of blindness form barriers between the blind and the sighted. Carver breaks down these barriers as he brings the vastly different lives of these two men together. Those of us with sight find it difficult to identify with the blind. This man, like most of us, can only try to imagine what life is like for Robert.
He didn’t like the fact that his wife had a new friend that was going to stay with them and he felt threatened by their closeness. He selfishly says, “ I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (Cathedral 86). He clearly didn’t have compassion for that fact that Robert was disabled and that his wife had just died. All he cared about was his own feelings and his own relationship with his wife. He also had the nerve to go on and say, “ My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Some times they were led by Seeing Eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (Cathedral 86). He was clearly uninformed and biases when it came to people with disabilities or people that were different from him. He didn’t look at the situation as an opportunity to get to see something different and learn but to complain for pretty much the entire short
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."
...ry there are many instances in which the narrator seems to dislike Robert, in which case it is because he is “blind”. Not only is he blinded in the way that he cannot understand Robert, but it leads him to believe that Robert is not human at all because of his disability that he possess. The narrator develops with the aid of Robert, to see Robert as an actual human being. Raymond Carver gives the narrator a transformation through characterization as well as the aid of Robert to show his development and progression throughout the story.
Overall, the cathedral that the narrator draws with Robert represents true sight, the ability to see beyond the surface to the true meaning that lies within. The husband’s insecurities makes him emotionally blind. His inability to see past Robert’s disability ultimately prevents him from seeing the reality of any relationship or person in the story. The husband becomes more sensitive and accepts the moment of being blind has allowed him to become a better man. Finally, the cathedral drawing ironically reveals blindness to be an important factor. As a result, Carver gives interesting lessons to powerfully assess how we can find beauty and free ourselves from prejudgments and see the real world with our minds, not only our eyes.
Constantly throughout the short story, Robert defies the narrator’s original portrayal of what he believes is a stereotypical blind man. “He also had a full beard. But he didn’t use a cane and he didn’t wear dark glasses. I’d always thought dark glasses were a must for the blind” (Carver 36). Robert also starts to change the narrator’s perception of blind people not only physically but emotionally. In an act of thoughtful accommodation, the narrator begins to describe to Robert the cathedrals on the television when the speaker of the program halts the commentary. Robert starts to slightly and gradually change the perspective that the narrator sees blind people from until the conclusion of the story when Robert shines a light on the
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 has, technically, normal vision he is in the beginning of this story the one who is "blind." Through the husband’s words and actions when he is dealing with Robert, the blind man, we can see that the husband does not "see" or understand what Robert’s blindness means or how it changes or does not change 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; he seems to be able to see Robert as a person and not just as a blind man.
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.
First and foremost, the literary trope of disability is found in the short story, “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver. In summary, the story follows a couple who house a blind man for the night. The husband is our narrator and the narrator’s wife (neither of the spouses’ names are revealed to readers) declares that her friend, Robert, is coming to visit them. Robert is a blind man whose wife has recently died. The narrator’s wife met Robert while she worked as a reader to the blind. The narrator is not keen upon Robert coming to lodge at his home and is disconcerte...
After reading Carver’s, “The Cathedral” it got me warmed up to start really looking deeper into symbols, as we read more into the course. The first thing I noticed, not exactly a symbol, was that the, “operation,” they are talking about is really an abortion. The American obviously wants “Jig” or “The Girl” to have the abortion and The Girl does not know what she wants in the beginning. We can see she is co-depended on The American; her inability to commutate to the bartender without his help is evidence of this.