One’s ability to see and use eye contact is important when seeking to display interest within a two-way conversation. When searching to formulate a connection, the ability to see visibly is as important as having an open mind for a clearer perception. Oftentimes, an individual who is literally blind is much more aware of a situation figuratively than someone who can see visibly. Any person can be blind figuratively when they continually decide to create quick assumptions and paint a picture within their minds before allowing themselves to analyzing a situation or someone first hand. In the short story by Raymond Carver, known as “Cathedral,” the narrators shown by Robert the blind man that he is just as blind figuratively as well as Robert …show more content…
who is literally blind. Robert’s role in the story is significant in order to demonstrate how there are different aspects of blindness. The narrator shows his blindness to the world by immediately directing false labeling towards Robert the blind man before he meets him.
He starts by basing his ideas on things he’s seen from inaccurate sources. For example, he confesses that his “idea of blindness came from the movies… [where] the blind moved slowly and never laughed” (1076). Having never met a blind person, the narrator automatically suspects that Robert is someone who is handicapped because he is blind. This led him to believe that people who cannot visibly see are unable to find their way unless they’re “led by seeing eye dogs” (1076). He blindingly makes these presumptions solely from a stereotypical viewpoint which clouds his judgement and prevents him from seeing the blind man for his true …show more content…
attributes. Overrun by intense emotions and misguided by his figurative blindness, the narrator feels surprised when he discovers that his earlier expectations of Robert’s likeliness turned out to be false. “I’d always thought dark glasses were a must for the blind” (1079). Having not spoken from actual experience, the narrator bases his assumptions about Robert from presupposing knowledge. He continues to trust sources which seem to intend to speak for all blind people. “I remembered having read somewhere that the blind didn’t smoke, because, as speculation had it, they couldn’t see the smoke they exhaled” (1080). His ignorance of knowledge people who are blind, demonstrates how the narrator is almost just as blind. The narrator slowly begins unraveling the mystery behind his own figurative blindness and begins to feel uncertain about his approach towards Robert once his stereotypical ideas have been challenged. “I watched with admiration as he used his knife and fork on the meat” (1080). Along with the way he originally suspected blind person to be like, the narrator is surprised when he discovers Robert is capable of eating a meal in front of him with no need of additional assistance. “But this blind man smoked his cigarette down to the nubbin and then lit another one” (1080). Immediately after Robert effortlessly surprised the narrator with his abilities, his perception about blind people became somewhat doubtful. After he spends some time alone with the blind man, he allows himself to start listening to the blind man once he realized that Robert perceives his surroundings much more different than what he originally anticipated.
Robert shows his patience and when he tells the narrator “whatever you want to watch is okay” (1082). His positive attitude towards his host’s hospitality and offer from vast selections of TV channels, Robert one doesn’t need to overturn each minor detail within their mind when he claims that he is “always learning something… [and] Learning never ends” (1082). The narrator had the goal to keep their conversation going and kept making offers additional offers for drugs and drinks. It won’t hurt me to learn something tonight. I got ears” (1082). This convinced him to view his surroundings from a more positive point of view which encouraged the narrator to become more engaged in his conversation with
Robert. The narrator then asks Robert about his knowledge of cathedrals, then begins to explain how his point of view in relation to symbolism of cathedrals felt absolutely meaningless. “The truth is, cathedrals don’t mean anything special to me” (1084). His outlook towards cathedrals who have a religious point of view displays he is blind. The blind man plays an important role as he asks for a favor in order to resolve his problem with expressing how he truly feels. “We’ll do something, we’ll draw one together” (1084). This activity Robert suggested for the two of them do together is crucial because it helps the narrator to avoid depending on his blindness and to open his mind to be able to sync with each other’s point of view. Towards the end, the narrator eyes have been opened for the first time when Robert told him to close them, which helped to lift his figurative blindness. “I’ll follow along with you” (1084). “So we kept on with it. His fingers rode my fingers as my hand went over the paper. It was nothing else in my life up until now” (1085). Robert’s challenge to ask him to draw the cathedral instead of describing it through his general understanding gives the narrator the advantage to possibly transform. This specific quote helps to explore how the narrator essentially becomes more like Robert by the way he makes a meaningful connection within the story. “My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything” (1085). By the course of events and a newly found perspective the narrator received through his experiences with Robert, enforces the possibility of helping him overcome his figurative blindness. In the story, the blind man plays an important role which influences the narrator when Robert disproves his original expectations of him, while also showing him how his mental outlook is also a form of figurative blindness. Robert’s role in the story is significant because it helps to contrast the differences between both literal and figurative blindness. Through the narrator’s interactive experiences with Robert, his transformative progression helps to further prevent him from embracing this his blindness, but whether he makes the decision to do is debatable.
The blind man is appealing to readers because of the fact that he proves to be a good friend and listener to the narrator’s wife. The wife and blind man have kept in touch by exchanging audio tapes over the years. The wife feels comfortable sharing all aspects of her life with him. The husband expands on this by saying “She and I began going out, and of course she told her blind man about it” (5). This quote proves that the blind man provides a sense of comfort to the wife who cannot find the same sense of security in her own husband. The blind man is friendly and makes an attempt to befriend the husband even though he is consistently rude to him. The blind man tells the narrator he will stay up with him to talk even after his wife has gone to sleep. He says he feels “like me and her monopolized the evening” (83). The blind man respectfully says to the narrator “[y]ou’re my host” and wants to be fair and make sure the husband doesn’t feel left out during his visit (102). He is also very understanding and patient with the husband. This characteristic is especially proven when the narrator tries, but fails at explaining the appearance of a cathedral to the blind man. He apologizes for not doing a good job. The blind man understands and reassures him by saying “I get it, bub. It’s okay. It happens. Don’t worry about it” (110). He is aware that his
This is proven through his epiphany during his portrayal of being blind. Although Bub is not physically blind, he has a shortage of observations. This shows that in many ways he is blinder than Robert. Robert is more open minded and willing to experience things, in contrast to Bub, who is narrow minded and has problems opening up his mind throughout the short story. Because the protagonist does not fully try to understand his wife, it makes him look like the blind person ironically though he can visually recognize her, proving that he does not truly know her inside and out.
The close outside friendship between the narrator’s wife and Robert, the blind man, provokes the narrator’s insecurities. This friendship has lasted for ten long years. During those years, they have exchanged countless voice tapes wherein they both tell each other what has happened in their respective lives. Because of this, the narrator feels that his wife has told Robert more than Robert needs to know. The narrator laments, "she told him everything or so it seemed to me" (1054). The narrator’s fear is somehow confirmed when Robert arrives and says that he feels like they have already met (1055). The narrator is left wondering what his wife has disclosed. This murky situation leaves the narrator feeling insecure, especially when he sees the warm interaction between his wife and Robert.
The short story, “Cathedral,” by Raymond Carver, is about a blind man who changes the way the narrator views life by giving him some insight on how he sees things. The characters in this short story are constantly developing into better versions of themselves by sharing their insights with one another.
The idea of having Robert as his guest makes Bub uncomfortable. He is stubbornly resistant to the notion of having this strange man in his home, doubly so given this particular man’s physical limitations and the shared history with Bub’s wife. Bub has a disjointed understanding
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 ...
...interracial relationships. However because of the way he acts when he hears about the two of them, it is obvious that he has led a sheltered life. But even after his entire life of not understanding what was going on in the world around him, one night with Robert enlightened him and changed his view on people and his surrounding environment.
The narrator’s prejudice makes him emotionally blind. His inability to see past Robert’s disability stops him from seeing the reality of any relationship or person in the story. And while he admits some things are simply beyond his understanding, he is unaware he is so completely blind to the reality of the world.
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.
Robert tells the narrator to find some heavy paper and pencils so they can draw a cathedral together. As they drew Robert tells the narrator to close his eyes. There was a connection made between Robert and the narrator and he says, "it was like nothing else in my life up to now." Robert tells him to open his eyes, but he doesn?t because he doesn?t want the experience to end.
...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.
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.
Many people view blindness as a disability, but could these people be blind to their surroundings? Even though the narrator can perfectly see with his eyes, he lacks in understanding awareness. The narrator blindness isn 't physical, like many vision impaired people. His blindness is psychological, and his blindness causes him to become jealous. His blindness blocks his perception of viewing the world in a different way. This only causes him to see the physical attributes of humans, and thus shut off his mindfulness of viewing human personalities. As a result of a closed mind, the narrator doesn 't understand how Robert was able to live with the fact that he was never able to see his wife in the flesh, but the narrator fails to see that Robert vision of his wife was intimate. On the other hand, Robert blindness is physical. This causes Robert to experience the world in a unique manner. Without Robert eyesight, he is able to have a glimpse of a human personality. He uses his disability to paint pictures in his head to experience the world. By putting his psychological blindness aside, the narrator is able to bond with Robert, and he grasps the understanding of opening his eyes for the first time, and this forms a new beginning of a
...d the blind experience and it was like Robert was no longer the blind person in the house (Caldwell 3). As a result, this shows him the way to gaining a better understanding of his own self worth and heal from pass hurts by experiencing the transcendent of nature of life.