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Literary analysis for raymond carver's cathedral
Literary analysis for raymond carver's cathedral
Literary analysis for raymond carver's cathedral
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You can never assume to know someone’s life, or anything about them unless you put your feet in their shoes, so to judge, is simply ignorance. Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" is a story about how the narrator is uncomfortable with having his wife's blind friend Robert over over.The narrator starts off with a biased attitude towards Robert the blind man who is his wife’s friend and is visiting her at there home. As the story goes on the narrator makes multiple judgmental remarks about Robert being blind before he even meets him. The narrator assumes that Robert will be a bother and just be in the way when he comes to visit, the narrator assumes this because of how he thinks a blind man is to be because of what he has seen in movies. This becomes …show more content…
the main theme of the story that pops out but, as we read on the narrator seems to open his mind the more he talks and gets to know Robert. The narrator then starts showing a friendly vibe towards Robert showing interest in Roberts’s disability rather than judging him. At the end of the story Robert realizes that it is not what we see it is the knowledge that one individual has. Cathedral is a short story that was written by Raymond Carver in this story we see and ignorant unknowable being whom through a blind man receives a surprisingly eye-opening experience .This story comes off with a very powerful theme of prejudgment.
The narrator’s wife has an old friend that’s his wife that has just died and so has him come visit her. From the beginning of the story, we see the narrator’s personality comes off very strong against not wanting his wife’s blind friend Robert to come to his house to visit. The narrator tells his wife that he isn’t happy about this visitor and that the man’s blindness unsettles him. The narrator seems very jealous of the fact that someone besides him is going to be taking his wife …show more content…
attention. The narrator goes on to make jokes about the blind man, he asks his wife if he should take him bowling, and even goes as far to ask “ was his wife a negro” pg.105 (14). The narrator then goes on about how bad he felt for the blind man’s wife that he couldn’t even compliment her or even read an expression on her face. When the blind man arrives at their house the narrator stares at Robert and is shocked that his wife and he are smiling and laughing as if a blind man cannot make someone laugh. The narrator sees the way Robert is s dressed and even has a beard, Robert, shatters the narrator’s stereotypes about blind people. Upon their meeting, the narrator confesses that he had “always thought dark glasses were a must for the blind” The narrator notices that Robert smokes and says “I never knew a blind man would smoke. The narrator has all these assumptions about the blind man before he had even met him he had a whole image of how he would be but, when Robert arrives he is nothing like what the narrator picture him to be. The narrator even points out that he’s never seen a blind man before but, my idea of blindness came from the movies.
In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed”. You can clearly see that the narrator was the one that was blind, blinded by his own ignorance, the narrator than starts seeing the blind differently. However, he feels reluctant to have any conversation with the blind man till the middle of the story. After the narrators wife falls asleep they watch tv to avoid conversation, but the awkward silence seem to get to the narrator and for the first time he asks Robert a question with complete interest in the answer. The narrator asks “Something has occurred to me. Do you have any idea what a cathedral is? What they look like, that is? Do you follow me? If somebody says cathedral to you, do you have any notion what they’re talking about? Do you the difference between that and a Baptist church, say?” The narrator tries to describe a cathedral to
Robert
In the short story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, the narrator, Bub, is as metaphorically blind as his guest, Robert, is literally blind. Bub has many unwarranted misconceptions about life, blind people in particular. He also has many insecurities that prevent him from getting too close to people. Through his interaction with Robert, Bub is able to open his mind and let go of his self-doubt for a moment and see the world in a different light.
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...
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.
Some readers might think that he is a good guy just because of the way the narrator doesn’t trust him. Other readers could agree with the narrator’s point of view which is throughout his relationship with his wife, Robert has always been a main key in her life, lurking in the background. One could think that Robert could be planning on trying to seduce the wife. But instantly after meeting Robert, he says, “this blind man was late forties, a heavy-set, balding man with stooped shoulders, as if he carried a great weight there” which makes the readers feel his grief even though the narrator seems almost oblivious. Robert’s wife has recently died, and we learn that although her is there in person, talking about his life, he seems as if he is not really present. The narrator was naïve to be thinking that Robert was clearly not a threat and that his wife and him are clearly friends. Once he realizes that the narrator opens up to Robert, and is motivated to show his wife he loves her by being nice to her friend. He also sees an opportunity to learn about his assumptions of blind people. In the beginning of the story, the narrator voices that his “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.” But while watching, and hearing the way Robert did things changed the way
Throughout the text the narrator is either jealous or scared and has some idea of what a blind person should look or be like. “I have never met, or known anyone personally who was blind.” (pg.347) The narrator feels uncomfortable about having a blind man in the house because he doesn’t know how to be around blind people in general. He doesn’t feel comfortable with making someone else comfortable when he doesn’t know how to react. “A blind man in my house was not so...
In “Cathedral,” the narrator starts off as a single-minded man who fears what he does not know. For instance, when he discovers that his wife’s blind friend is spending the night, his words are, “A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (Carver 1). The narrator fears blindness because he is
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.
The narrator also feels intimidated by his wife?s relationship with the blind man. When he is telling of her friendship with Robert h...
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
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.
Immediately, we as the reader can immediately pick up on the foreshadowing here. As time would go on, the narrator meets the man, whom he pejoratively refers to as “the blind man.” There is a sense that while the bland man is physically blind, on the other hand, the narrator is blind himself. Rather than taking the time to know the man’s name, about his children, or anything else about him, he immediately calls him by the disparaging title, “the blind man.” Between the two, there is an awkwardness. The man attempts to probe and question a bit, the meaningless charade of small-talk, but as time goes on, there is finally a breakthrough. When the wife, the glue between the man and the blind man’s awkwardness, goes to sleep, there is a change in tone. Now, the man is forced to interact with the blind man. Immediately from the onset, we learn that the man himself is a bit of a misanthrope. The wife derides him for “having no friends” and as time goes on in the story, we hear judgmental and presumptive notions from the
After Robert’s wife dies he called the narrator’s wife from his in-laws’. They made arrangements and soon Robert would be on a train. He was going to come for a visit. This is the part where he narrator wasn’t thrilled about a blind man coming to stay. He said, “And his being blind bothered me,” (Carver 305) as well as, “My idea of blindness came from the movies.” (Carver 305) The fact that the narrator relies on the movies for his idea of blindness shows his lack of awareness. This is the main theme within this story.
The blind man asks the husband to describe to him the image of a cathedral. The husband was unable to successfully compose an accurate description, because he didn’t understand the meaning and the symbolism of the building. He is not a man of religion, and he was watching the show only because he had nothing else to do. When asked to describe a cathedral he says, "Sometimes the cathedrals have devils and such carved into the front. Sometimes lords and ladies. Don't ask me why this is, I said" (558-561). He continues his description of why people built Cathedrals as “…In those olden days, when they built cathedrals, men wanted to be close to God. In those olden days, God was an important part of everyone's life. You could tell this from their cathedral-building.” (572-576). Robert asked the narrator if he belonged to any religion and he replied by saying “"I guess I don't believe in it. In anything. Sometimes It's hard. (586-587).” Compelled to think about the purpose of cathedrals, the narrator realizes that, they symbolize the struggles of the people which made them build those structures to get closer to God. What would make people do such a thing? Faith in religion sometimes give direction and meaning to peoples’
The narrator also claims that it must be pitiful to be the wife of a blind man (35); however, he fails to recognize that this very much mirrors the poor relationship he holds with his wife. Additionally, the narrator mentions how it is absurd for Robert to have married “without his having ever seen what the goddamned woman looked like” (35), which displays his inability to look beyond the physical aspects of others. Thus, the author creates the idea that the narrator’s heavy focus on the physical element of his marriage causes him to be blind to the emotional part of it
However, as the story progresses this image created by the narrator seems to disappear. The background the narrator gives the reader regarding Robert at the beginning of the story is not a flattering one. For instance, the narrator begins talking about a story his wife told him, how when she worked for Robert he asked to touch her face and afterwards she wrote a poem about this encounter. Robert explains to the reader that “She never forgot it” (Carver Par. 2). The narrator goes on to inform the reader that the very next helper the blind man had he ended up marrying. Furthermore, the narrator is presenting the facts about the story in a way that directs the reader to wonder whether his wife and Robert ever had a relationship that was more than just friends. This assumption that the narrator presumes to be correct is later extinguished once the narrator meets the blind man and quickly changes his mind about the matter and realizes that this was only a friend relationship. We see with this aspect that Robert is viewed negatively before the narrator even meets Robert but after meeting him the narrator changes his prejudice views about Robert. During the entire story, we are only given the name of the blind man, Robert. This is unusual because in most stories the characters and names are given out to allow the reader to connect with them more. However, on further