Respect the blind folks. A person who is blind for the most part of their life has tendencies to dig deeper into people instead of people who can actually see the different appearances of people. People who have vision are usually more focused on the outward appearance other than what is at someone someone’s heart. Blind people tend to have more wisdom and intellectual than a usual person. As Robert being presented as a static character and the antagonist, he plays a huge role throughout the story, “Cathedral.” Throughout Raymond Carver’s, “Cathedral,” Robert, the blind man, with his hectic background, appearance, interaction with others help shape the narrator into opening his eyes to help understand other people that is different from him. …show more content…
Robert lived in Seattle and met the narrator’s wife by hiring her to read for him for a summer job; she was hired right on the spot. The narrator’s wife ended up moving away with her fiancé that was in the military, and it did not turn out so well. After her move, Beulah was Robert’s second helper with his readings. Robert and Beulah ended up having themselves a little church wedding with just them and the minister, without knowing she carried cancer in her glands. “After they had been inseparable for eight years─my wife’s word, inseperable─Beulah’s health went into rapid decline (Carver 262).” Beulah ended up dying at the hospital in Seattle. Robert visited his wife’s family in Connecticut and made arrangements to visit the narrator’s wife while he was there. Robert really did not have any friends or family except for his wife and narrator’s wife, which he kept in touch with through tape recordings. He managed to get around and develop the strength to be able to get through hard times without no one to be around. While trying to interpret Robert’s outward appearance, the narrator described Robert as an old blind man in his forties. He was a heavy set with stooped shoulders, as if he carried great weight. “He wore brown slacks, brown shoes, a light brown shirt, a tie, a sports coat (Carver 263).” He did not use a cane nor did he wear dark glasses to prevent people from seeing his eyes. His facial hair included a full beard. With a quick glance, his eyes appeared normal. Actually looking at his eyes, you would recognize white in the iris, and his pupil’s appearing to be moving around in his sockets. The narrator made Robert appear as creepy because he never seen anyone’s eyes move without the effort, but he was just a normal man that could not see. Carver first presented Robert through the eye of the narrator’s ignorance by mentioning “In the movies, the blind man moved slowly and never laughed (Carver 261)”.
Robert was the antagonist in the story because he had caused a great mass of confusion to the narrator and his feelings. Robert is also a static character because he did not make a change throughout the story, except when he smoked the dope for the first time. Carver’s intention was to have Robert as a static character to make changes to the protagonist, the narrator. The purpose of having Robert’s visit was to make the narrator adapt to usual things he has never done before. The narrator wondered how in the world he could be able to entertain a blind man. Carver had the narrator smoke dope with the man, and even had him describe the cathedrals that were on television to the man. He did not realized how difficult it would be to explain a picture a man have never been able to see. Robert ends up having the narrator take his hand with his and have him to draw what the cathedrals looked like on the show, so the Robert could be able to feel how the spirals were made. The narrator was not noticing, but Carver was having him to open up and start understanding Robert. Before the narrator met Robert, he had no imagination at all, but by the end of “Cathedral” he was drawing a picture with him to explain how cathedrals looked. Robert made the narrator open …show more content…
up. Robert was a man who was very independent and could see people from their internal perspective not the eternal.
The narrator always wondered how was Robert able to marry his wife without actually seeing how she looked. The narrator also wondered how oththe wife could be able to marry someone who was never able to see her.
Imagine a woman who could never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one. A woman who could go on day after day and never receive the smallest compliment from her beloved. A woman whose husband could never read the expression on her face, be it misery or something better. (Carver 262)
The narrator does not understand how the woman loved him because Robert has the ability to connect with people emotionally. In order for Robert to marry, they both had an understanding on how each other felt and his wife knew that he was not marrying her because about how she looked but who she was. Robert was able to connect with the narrator’s wife on a level that the narrator could not because Robert was understanding. With Robert being able to not see, he was not focusing on anyone’s race or ethnicity but what they had at
heart. In conclusion, Robert was a character in “Cathedral” that helped the narrator develop new ways to interact with people he was not used to. Robert went through a dramatic event when he lost his wife, which made him reconnect with the narrator’s wife. Throughout the process of hanging out with the narrator, they had some fun, but also connected on an emotional level. Robert was able to bring out a side that we had never seen from the narrator. Robert was to an advantage because he was able to interact with others with others not based on judgment.
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 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.
Bub’s misconceptions are now completely flipped as Robert is helping Bub with something Bub does not understand at all. It is as if Bub is the incapable one and Robert is his guide. By the time Bub and Robert are holding hands and drawing a picture together, Bub has released all his previous misconceptions and some of his insecurities. This is when Bub really begins to see the side of Robert that perhaps is why his wife loves him so much.
...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.
The usage of first person point of view traps the reader within the mind of a character who is closed off and narrow-minded for the duration of the story in such a way that it “tell 's nothing, but shows everything (Messer)” at the same time. In this way, the reader goes through the series of realizations with the narrator which convey the message of blindness in correlation with true sight and a spiritual awakening. For instance, the narrator can only feel pity for Robert’s wife, Beulah, because he was never able to see her. He imagined that Robert 's wife “could, if she wanted, wear green eye-shadow around one eye, a straight pin in her nostril, yellow slacks, and purple shoes” (Mays). However, none of this really matted to Robert, and the narrator finds it utterly pathetic. Yet, the narrator never really understands the fact that he does not really know his own wife, regardless of the fact that he can physically see her. Additionally, within the first paragraph, Carver uses demonstratives and possessives to draw the reader close to the Narrator of the story while also constructing a psychological distance between the narrator and other characters in the story (Peterson). In this paragraph, Carver uses the demonstrative “this” as a word to indicate distance, metaphorically, between the narrator and Robert (Peterson). In particular the sentence, “This blind man, an old friend of my wife 's, he was on his way to spend the night (Mays 33)” demonstrates the use of this as a specific person while showing the distance and dislike the narrator has of Robert. As a result, the narrators prejudice is presented to the reader in a way that shows his blindness as
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...
Blindness in Raymond Carver's Cathedral Blindness creates a world of obscurity only to be overcome with guidance from someone willing to become intimate with the blind. Equally true, the perceptions of blindness can only be overcome when the blind allow intimacy with the sighted. Raymond Carver, with his short story Cathedral, illustrates this point through the eyes of a man who will be spending an evening with a blind man, Robert, for the first time. Not only does this man not know Robert, but his being blind, "bothered" (Carver 98) him.
The husband's view on the world at the start of the story was a narrow one that was based on his ignorance, which prevented him from gaining understanding. His long held misconceptions, especially about blindness, defined his expectations about things he did not understand. For instance, when the husband found out that Robert was coming to stay, he disliked the idea of someone who was blind, let alone someone who he didn't know, coming to visit and the husband's "idea of blindness came from the movies." He saw the blind people as people who "moved slowly and never laughed." This was not the limit of his ignorance as it was further displayed by his constant referral of Robert as "the blind man" and his assumption of Robert's deceased wife being a black person based solely on the name of Beulah. This assumption display his bigotry is not limited to Robert's blindness and that differences that he did not understan...
The irony between Robert and the narrator is that even though Robert is blind, he pays attention to detail without the need of physical vision. Roberts’s relationship with the narrator’s wife is much deeper than what the narrator can understand. Robert takes the time to truly listen to her. “Over the years, she put all kinds of stuff on tapes and sent the tapes off lickety-split. [...] She told him everything, or so it seemed to me” (Carver 124). This demonstrates that the narrator is in fact somewhat jealous of how his wife confides in Robert, but still overlooks the fact that he doesn’t make the slightest effort to pay attention to her. Also the narrator is not precisely blind, but shows a lack of perception and sensitivity that, in many ways, makes him blinder than Robert. Therefore, he has difficulty understanding people’s views and feelings that lie beneath the surface.
The physical description of Robert obviously helps to visualize him and how he might carry himself. “This blind man was late forties, a heavy-set, balding man with stooped shoulders, as if he carried a great weight there. He wore brown slacks, brown shoes, a light-brown shirt, a tie, a sports coat” (Carver 107). Carver also gives us details of Roberts booming voice and friendly demeanor. These descriptions along with certain mannerisms help to create a mental image of the way Robert behaves. “He lifted his beard, sniffed it, and let it fall” (Carver 109). These subtle details makes a huge difference when reading. Just that little mannerism of Robert playing with his beard few times throughout the story better allows the reader to picture how he moves and interacts with the narrator while conversing. The way Robert continues to call the narrator “bub” is another unique detail of his character. Somehow, it fits his big friendly demeanor so well. This seems to be such a simple but effective way to create a unique characteristic for the reader. His calmness and ability to cope with the narrators sarcastic remarks successfully displays Robert as the compassionate and patient man that Carver intended to
Want? -"(P721). By treating everyone generically and denying their importance, the narrator is trying to make himself seem more important in the lives of others. He simply calls his wife's first husband "the officer"(P720) or "the man"(P720). His refusal to even use his wife's name while narrating as well as constantly referring to Robert as the "the blind man"(P720) shows that he has decided to block out the importance of the people around him. He is even less considerate of Roberts wife, whom he refers to as "Beulah, Beulah"(P721). The narrator chooses not to see everyone around him as individuals, but as a whole group. A group he is scared to look at. The narrator's feelings toward Robert are...
...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.
Raymond Carver, in his short story Cathedral uses a first-person narrator, whose point of view is very much limited and flawed. The narrator in Cathedral has full use of all his senses, unlike the blind man, Robert, who is introduced very early in the story. When comparing the two again, however, Robert is the character that is open to new ideas and willing to experience the joys of life, while the narrator limits himself due to his close-minded thinking. It brings up the question, who is truly blind in the story? Is it a physical ailment or a mental block? The narrator is never given a name in the story, making him the most impersonal character in the story. This also adds to the fact that the narrator is highly ignorant about his surroundings and has a one-sided, self-absorbed view of the world. The perception of the narrator leaves much to be inferred in many points in the story, and at first, it seems pointless to have such a closed off character and the one telling his point of view. I would like to hear the story from the wife’s point of view or Robert’s. Ultimately, however, the limited point of view of the narrator shows where the true ignorance in the world lies.