Many people don’t think about the negative impact stereotypes and being close-minded can have on their lives. Sometimes these stereotypes can get in the way of learning and experiencing new things. In “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” by Z.Z. Packer and “Cathedral” by Raymond Carter, the main characters of the stories are dealing with new experiences. Both main characters have to face the impact that their stereotyping and being close-minded has on them by having new experiences that they aren’t familiar with. Being able to see them struggle to make sense of the things that they are going through really leaves an impact because it allows the reader to see the things they are thinking. “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver really demonstrated the negative …show more content…
impact that stereotypes can have on someone’s life. The main character meets his wife’s friend, who is blind. He never met a person who was blind before. He believes a lot of stereotypes about the blind that he’s seen in movies and heard about. He was very pessimistic about meeting him since he didn’t know what to expect. Throughout the whole story his interjections are always negative. He doesn’t see his wife’s friend, Robert, as a normal person. This is all because of having no experience with a blind person. In the end, he starts to understand Robert and the life of a blind person. The one thing I took away from this story is you should never be close-minded and stereotype a person before you even meet them. Instead, you should get to know them and how they live their life. This connects to my in-class writing assignment because I judged the group of students that were different from me. My stereotyping them without getting to know why they behave the way they do is horrible. I should have tried to learn about how and why they live their lives the way that they do. Also, I should have been more understanding. Just because someone expresses his or her self in a totally different way than I, doesn’t mean that the person is below me. Everyone goes through life differently. We should appreciate our differences and learn to accept each other. In “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere”, Dina seems to be having a major identity crisis in her first year of college.
She is a black woman grieving over the lost her mother and seems to try her best to alienate herself from her peers. Dina grew up being an honor student in a neighborhood that wasn’t the best. She got picked on for being smart and was abused by her father. All of these factors caused her to try to get away from the other students that came from good households and are white. Dina does not seem to know who she really is and that can be a big problem for anyone. Instead of exploring her new surroundings, she closes herself off. Going through new experiences, like starting college, can help someone discover who they are. Not having those experiences can be very damaging. While reading this story I was very surprised about how she decided to deal with her first year at an Ivy League University. It was very confusing on why she would alienate herself like she did, but I think that gives a reader an insight into what the main character is going through herself. She is confused and alone. When I was starting to talk to the people I never really talked to before, I started to realize that we had many things in common. If I wouldn’t have put myself in a new situation, I wouldn’t have learned anything. This story shows how it’s vital to try to get outside of your comfort zone and try to understand
others. To conclude, both stories had main characters that went through a struggling time in their lives. The husband in “Cathedral” overcame his stereotyping and was able to finally understand his blind friend. But Dina wasn’t able to overcome her struggle with being able to trust and have fun in her first year of college. I think thank both stories showed the importance of living life. Life is all about going through new experiences and learning from them.
In Dave Barry's story, Lost in the Kitchen, he's shows a humorous story about two men's ineptness at helping to prepare for their Thanksgiving dinner. However, as you look closer at the essay you find that the actual message the author is trying to convey is one of stereotypes, and how they appear everyday in our lives, even during the preparations for a simple Thanksgiving dinner. In order to convey this message he uses several strategies and techniques to draw our attention to the use of stereotypes in our lives and to help us better understand the point that he is trying to get across.
She shows the nature of power and how it slowly slips away from the person’s grasp. First it corrupts the mind of a person and changes them, and then it slips away from their hands leaving them with nothing but arrogance, pride and
In every story, regardless of length or genre, an attempt is made to portray and decipher reality. In James Joyce’s abstract short story “Araby”, the beliefs of a young boy about life and the ones around him and their change over time are represented. In “Cathedral”, Raymond Carver’s short story about the relationship between a blind man named Robert, the narrator and his wife, we see the blind man massively impact the way that the narrator views the world around him. These stories each present drastically different relationships and world views in a similar manner and though each story ends on a much different note, they both have poignant messages about the world around them and end with the main
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...
Both Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral” and John Updike’s short story “A&P” contain two main characters that stereotype a group of people, but in the end this provokes them to have a revelation in the way they view themselves and the people around them. For Sammy in the story “A&P” it is the young, girls who bring about his change of heart and for the husband in “Cathedral” it is the blind man Robert. The two story lines relate as the two main characters view the stereotyped groups of people negatively. The girls and the blind man are viewed as intruders into the main characters’ daily lives. The two catalysts “the girls” and “Robert” are the cause of change, a real eye opener for the two main characters of the stories,
Prejudice is an issue that is present in communities around the world due to diversity in race, religion, sexual orientation, lifestyles and physical disabilities of others as well. However, sometimes it just takes a life changing moment for one to realize that he or she should not discriminate against others just because of their appearance or beliefs. In the story “Cathedral”, author Raymond Carver writes about a man who is prejudging towards his wife’s blind friend, Robert, who will be visiting the couple. At first the narrator, or “Bub” as Robert nicknamed him, does not like the idea of Robert staying there because he is blind. Once Robert arrives, “Bub” does not really make an effort to get along with him; they had dinner together and watched television, but still did not have much of a conversation. Towards the end of the story, both Robert and “Bub”, cooperate to sketch a cathedral which turned out to be something more meaningful to the narrator. Through the help of Robert, the man was able to see things from a blind man’s perspective while realizing what one lacks physically, can be made up in other ways. In Carver's story, "Cathedral", the narrator has a change in perspective from one that is discriminatory towards those who are blind to one that is not only tolerant, but accepting of those who are not able to see, which is significant in understanding the theme that prejudice is a form of blindness.
“Cathedral,” a short story written by Raymond Carver, presents an intriguing story of an ignorant man 's lesson. During this story, Carver 's working class characters are crushed by broken marriages, financial issues, and fulfilling jobs, but they are frequently unable to understand or communicate their own sufferings. However, the main story consists of the narrator, known as “Bub,” facing an internal conflict about a blind man named Robert staying the night in his home. Regardless of the fact that this blind man is his wife 's long time friend, the narrator cannot find himself comfortable with such an idea because of his extreme prejudices. Although, despite the narrator’s conflict he finds himself connecting to Robert on a more personal
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.
At some point in any person’s life he or she will be the victim or victimizer of stereotyping. This all too familiar aspect of society is one of the most unfortunate occurrences in life. For many, the harsh generalizations that stereotypes are based on crush the spirit of free will. Yet there are some brave people who choose to counter these stereotypes and live life as they choose, despite what judgments may come. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character, Janie—an African American woman of the 1930’s, struggles with accepting the stereotypes that affect her life. She tries to fit in with them at the cost of her happiness and self-expression. Through her revelations and life changes that defy these stereotypes the audience discovers just how damaging and self-defeating stereotypes can be. Stereotypes can lead to loss of cultural pride and loss of self-expression because they are often based on racist and or sexist generalizations, people feel obligated to fit in with stereotypes, and people lose a sense of independence when they try to follow a stereotype.
In the story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, it tells of how a blind man is open to new experiences and how he views the world compared to the husband (narrator) who is blinded by the material things of life. The husband is given the gift of sight but the true gift comes from seeing the cathedral. At the beginning of the story, the husband’s outlook on others is filled with stereotypes, discrimination, insecurities and prejudice. After interacting with Robert, his wife's friend, his outlook begins to change significantly.
The narrator is told by his wife that she is having her blind friend come spend a night at their house. His wife had just passed and is a very good friend with the wife and wants the blind man to come stay with them. The narrator is not very happy about the blind man coming to visit and asks the wife where she met him and to talk more about. She explains that she worked for him, she read to him. When the blind man pulls up, the narrator is already being judgmental and prejudiced towards the blind man. He does not even the slightest open mind about meeting this man that his wife has such a good relationship with. In the story Cathedral, Raymond Carver uses metaphoric symbols, an object title, and a dialect style to get across the message that you cannot judge someone you have never met and the difference between looking and seeing things in a different perspective.
The film being analysed is the Breakfast Club, directed by John Hughes. Trapped in Saturday detention are 5 stereotyped teens. Claire, the princess, Andrew, the jock, John, the criminal, Brian, the brain, and Allison, the basket case. At 7 am, they had nothing to say, but by 4 pm; they had uncovered everything to each other. The students bond together when faced with the their principal, and realise that they have more in common than they think, including a hatred for adult society. They begin to see each other as equal people and even though they were stereotyped they would always be The Breakfast Club. The Breakfast Club highlights a variety of pressures that are placed upon teenagers through out high school. One of the most challenging aspects of screenwriting is creating characters that an audience can identify with, relate to, and be entertained by.
“The Cathedral” tackles many obstacles against prejudice. Throughout the narrative we see the close-mindedness of the man changes when he realizes he was wrong to judge someone based on their disabilities. The narrator changes a variety of things about himself through out this short story and learns to not judge a book by its cover, meaning get to learn who someone truly is before deciding if you are going to like them or not.
Stereotypes and generalizations have become the easy way to justify the separation of races, classes, and genders. Creating these ideas about the cultures that are different than our own is a dangerous habit that must be broken by this generation so that our children can play in merriment without the fear of being misunderstood on a day to day basis. So as Adiche said in her TED talk, stories matter, and to only pay attention to specific stories of one’s life, is to overlook all of the other formative experiences of life. “The problem with Stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” I charge you, Millennials, to go listen to the stories that fill this world, so that we might better understand the amazing things happening around us each and every
In her TED talk, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks through the role of perception in her life and the way that it changes social relationships. We have all had plenty of experiences that surprise us in regard to perception, such as the first time we meet someone from another culture, or meeting someone from our past in a new light. We have been inundated with stereotypes and preconceived notions since we were children, through stories, media, parents, teachers, and friends. Moreover, these presuppositions that we carry are rarely, if ever, based on anything substantial, yet they show up in every aspect of our life. Adichie calls the notion of this one-sided preconceived bias the “single story.” This “single story” is interesting due to the fact that even if we can overcome it, we are still affected by it. Adichie speaks about how even though she had become enlightened to this dilemma, she is still subject to it. As for her experience, she states that,