Essay On Cathedral By Flannery O Connor

In various works of fiction, there are characters who symbolize the ignorant people within our society. Within our society there are people who fail to try to understand those different things, and we even have people who believe they are “good” while ignorantly and inevitably having their own flaws. In both Cathedral, by Raymond Carver, and A Good Man Is Hard to Find, by Flannery O’Connor, the central characters are forced to deal with circumstances that change their beliefs about themselves and others. The perspective and symbolism of these two authors point to the danger of ignorance.
In Cathedral, there are two main characters. There is an unnamed narrator, and a blind man named Robert. Raymond Carver details two polarizing

characters: the blind man is a likeable man and therefore is a sympathetic character, while the unnamed narrator is an unlikeable man who initially seems ablest and racist. This unnamed character symbolizes our society that fails to understand the things and people that are different. In the beginning, lines like “A blind man in my house was not something I look forward to” (Carver 84) and “Beulah! That’s a name for a colored woman” (87), reveal two character flaws in the narrator. In A Good Man Is Hard to Find, there is a family of five people: a father named Bailey, an unnamed mother, a son named John Wesley, a daughter named June Star, and an unnamed grandmother. Unlike Cathedral, none of these family members would be considered sympathetic characters, due to their obnoxious personalities. The main character in this story is the grandmother, who is the most ignorant of the family. She possesses various flaws like manipulation and obsession with image. When she retells the story of Mr. Teagarden, a man trying to court her in her past, it is clear that her idea of a “good man” is based on superficial qualities like wealth, appearance, and presents. And at the beginning of the story, she tries to manipulate the family by telling them that a criminal, called the Misfit, was in the area she did not want to vacation. Although these two novels are about two seemingly different things, both detail the ignorance, hypocrisy, and naivety of characters who believe they are good or fail to see the wrong in their ways.
In both of these short stories, the authors use various literary tools to reveal their perspectives.

In Cathedral, there are various symbols. One example of symbolism is blindness, which can be symbolized as not seeing the truth. The blind man also alludes to the blind prophet in Oedipus, who ironically knows all of the answers to Oedipus’s questions and sees the truth. Just like the blind prophet, Robert helps the narrator understand more about himself. Another symbol is a cathedral. The unnamed character helps Robert understand what a cathedral is by first describing it, and then drawing it while Robert holds his hand. In this story, cathedrals represent that amazement you see when you walk into one and look up. This amazement is similar to an epiphany, which is why Carver titled this story “Cathedral.” Symbolism is not very obvious in A Good Man Is Hard To Find. However, O’Connor uses motifs like the phrase “A good man is hard to find.” O’Connor constantly references to these better times where people (specifically men) were more qualified than the people today. She is clearly using satire to highlight the grandmother’s irony in wanting a man who is adequate for her, when she is so flawed and so ignorant

herself.
In both of these stories, the main characters experience epiphanies.

In Cathedrals, the narrator starts his journey to enlightenment once the blind man enters the house. The first step towards the narrator’s understanding is when he learns that Robert smokes. The narrator believed in a misconception that blind people did not smoke because they are unable to see the smoke. However this was disproved when Robert smoked his cigarette. This caused the narrator to feel more connected to the blind man, because even though Robert was different, they both had a similarity. The second step, that shows the narrator’s change in perspective, occurred when they ate dinner. This scene alludes to The Last Supper, because of the wine, bread, and prayer. This also shows that the narrator’s disposition is slowly transfiguring. The final step towards the narrator’s epiphany is when Robert asks him to explain what a cathedral is. After the narrator draws the cathedral on the paper, Robert tells him to close his eyes. This act forces the narrator to experience what Robert experiences every day. The narrator not only sympathizes with Robert for the first time, but he truly understands that being different is not bad. In A Good Man Is Hard to Find, the grandmother experiences an epiphany as well. While she is trying to explain to the Misfit that he actually is a good man, she realizes the flaws that she possesses. At the end of the story the grandmother cries out, “‘why, you’re one of my

babies. You’re one of my own children’” (O’Connor 388). She reaches her enlightenment right before she was shot. The grandmother realizes she needed to change her ways, just like the narrator does in Cathedrals. The circumstances in these two short stories were very different, and the results of the epiphanies were also very different.
Although the fates of the grandmother and the unnamed narrator were completely different, they are both dynamic characters. In Cathedral, the unnamed narrator eventually understands the faults in his beliefs and the ending is left open ended by Carver. The narrator ironically learns from the blind man, who the narrator feels sorry for in the beginning. On the other hand, the grandmother in A Good Man Is Hard to Find reaches her enlightenment when it is too late. She finally understands her imperfections, but it is too late to change them. The authors of these two short stories show the different effects of ignorance on people. We can either realize what our flaws are and change them, or we will fail to understand our flaws until it is too late.
Both of these authors detail the lives of people who had failed to understand their own flaws. The narrator in Cathedrals was able to learn from the very man he pitied. He learned about his ignorance from a man who cannot even see. The grandmother in A Good Man Is Hard to Find was forced to understand her own flaws under a crucial circumstance. This shows the opinions of these two authors: humans are depraved by nature. Even in these two very different works of literature, it is clear that we as humanity need to reach our own individual enlightenments to remove our ignorance