In the short story, Cathedral by Raymond Carver, the narrators’ perspectives undergo massive change. The narrator of the story starts out being “blind” towards a person’s true character, and he also lacks insight and self-awareness. Ironically a blind man named Robert helps him truly see again. The narrator isn’t actually blind but he has a hard time seeing and understanding perspectives that aren’t his. But throughout the night, Robert and the narrator get to know each other and end up enjoying each other’s company. By the end of the story, the narrator finally accepts Robert for who he is, and could put his feet into Roberts shoes and the narrator learns how to truly “see” from a blind man. Almost in the beginning of the story the narrator …show more content…
states “a blind man in my house was not something I look forward to…” (Carver, p62) this blind man was a friend of his wife’s, and he did not enjoy this man coming to his home even though he knows that Robert’s wife just died from a suicide attempt. In the story the narrator states that “and his being blind bothered me…” (Carver, p62) the narrator didn’t truly understand how blind people operate. The narrator has this perception that must be a certain way, his way, or he will not accept it. He just had this idea that blind people did not laugh, that they were slow, that they always wore sunglasses to hide their eyes, and that most blind people had a seeing eye dog, he got this perspective from the movies. But, in reality he has never interacted with a blind individual. There is also a sense of jealously from the narrator towards the friendship between Robert and his wife. His wife worked with Robert on a professional level in the past, and once the job was done they stayed in contact with audio tapes. He especially got jealous when he found out that Robert touched his wife’s face and neck. But, if he had insight, and understood how the blind work, their hands are how they see, their hands are their eyes. Regardless of the narrators’ insensitivity when Robert comes to their home, he put on a pleasant face and treated Robert decently and kind. Towards the end of the night, once they got some alcohol and dope in their systems, Robert and the narrator are watching T.V. and there is a Cathedral on the screen. The narrator couldn’t find the words to describe what a cathedral was to Robert, so the narrator has this idea that they will draw one together. So, with Roberts hands on top of the narrator’s, they draw this Cathedral together, the narrator finally understands how Robert can truly see. The narrators’ eyes are closed and Robert asked how the finished drawing looked, and with that the narrators’ states “But I had my eyes closed. I thought I’d keep them that way for a little longer. I thought it was something I ought to do….” (Carver p76) He answers with his eyes still closed “it’s really something” (Carver p76). He finally experienced what it is like to have Roberts permanent condition, in some ways the narrator finds epiphany.
Robert helps the narrator see the world in a different light. Physical blindness does not necessarily mean mental blindness; Robert has given the narrator more insight, a better outlook on life without having eyesight himself. In the beginning, the narrator was closed minded, he didn’t want to look at a situation any other way then his own, but Robert opened him up, opened his brain up to the possibility that people are not always who you think they will …show more content…
be. In the short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, this story is centered around a deteriorating mental condition of the female character. This story was written in 1892 during a time where men dominated the society, and her husband controlled her own life. She feels oppressed by her husband who is also her doctor, this contributes to her mental condition. Her change in attitude towards her husband, her obsession with the wallpaper, and by her projecting herself with the woman in the wallpaper are all examples of how her madness progresses throughout the story. At the beginning of the story, she trusts her husband, believes in him, that he knows what he is doing. Of course, she disagrees with his strategy of complete rest, no work or writing is allowed. She believes that small work tasks that brings change and excitement would benefit with her recovery. She writes in her journal in spite of what her husband says to her, and she feels guilty that she is going against his word. She says “I have a scheduled prescription for each hour of the day; he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more…” (Gilman, p152). She hides her writing in the journal very well from her husband because he would not like it at all if he found out that she was. Her husband just wants her to get well but, writing in her journal helps her express how she feeling physically and emotionally, but throughout the story hiding this from John (her husband) becomes tiring and she becomes less sly in hiding it from him. The ways she slowly starts not caring if John finds out about her writing in her journal shows that she is cautious of Johns trust, she tells her journal “The fact is I am getting a little afraid of John…” (Gilman, pg. 161). She doesn’t believe that his intentions are true anymore, her suspicion of John turns into paranoia. This turns into her idea that the wallpaper is affecting her mental state. The narrator starts to develop this strange relationship with the wallpaper in the room that she spends most of her time in. When she first enters the room in the beginning of the story, she is disgusted by the color and the pattern of it. But slowly throughout the story she begins to have a connection with the wallpaper. She projects herself onto this wallpaper, she blames the wallpaper that it is slowing her progress to heal. She first projects herself onto this wallpaper when she first notices “a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design” (Gilman pg. 156). Her madness is not clearly visible, but it starts to become more visible because this figure has no solid shape, but she dwells on it and in her mind, this figure becomes very real. Slowly she becomes obsessed with the wallpaper, she ends up not sleeping at night because she lays awake studying the pattern of the wallpaper. She believes that the patterns can move, that they have a smell. She believes that the wallpaper knows things about her that nobody else knows does. This becomes her secret, something she can keep from John, something that she can finally control, because John controls her wellbeing and everything else in her life. The figure that she sees in these patterns solidifies and figuratively becomes her madness. The narrator says towards the end of the story that there is a woman behind the wallpaper, and unconsciously she is expressing her desire for her own freedom.
It expresses that the women behind the wallpaper has no control over the situation, and same goes with the narrator. The women behind the wallpaper cannot get out from behind it, she cannot break it or tear it. While the narrator cannot get out of her husband’s controls, she cannot have the things that she wishes. It started out being that she hated the wallpaper, then she slowly starts to see this formless figure, to now where she believes that there is a woman stuck behind it. Slowly she starts to rip off the wallpaper to help free the women behind it, and she finally becomes the woman behind the wallpaper. She frees herself from the confined room, and her controlling
husband. The Yellow Wallpaper shows how her husband’s intentions where true. John truly did want to help save his wife from her mental conditions, but in return, he pushes her farther away from him, and the madness overcomes her mental state. It can be shown through the delusions that the narrator faces, her slow obsession with the wallpaper, and her own actions towards her husband whom she uses to trust her life with. But, in her madness, she was able to gain control of her life again.
In Cathedral by Raymond Carver, the narrator faces the conflicts of only being able to look from a standard physical viewpoint versus seeing on a deeper more involved emotional level. The story reaches a crisis when the narrator closes his eyes and begins to draw a cathedral, relying only on his imagination to fill in the details, and letting himself be guided by Robert, a blind man. This causes him to see clearly for the first time in his life on a more profound scale, even though in reality he is not actually visibly seeing anything. Therefore, the overall work argues that the narrator succeeds at meeting his challenge. He becomes more complete as a human being, since he realizes that in order to understand and view the world, one does not
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.
Upon reading Raymond Carver's short story of the Cathedral one will notice the literary devices used in the short story. When analyzing the story completely, one then understands the themes, motifs, metaphors, and the overall point of the piece. This leaves the reader with an appreciation of the story and a feeling of complete satisfaction.
In the story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, the main character, goes through a major personal transformation. At the beginning of the story, his opinions of others are filled with stereotypes, discrimination and prejudice. Through interaction with his wife's blind friend Robert, his attitude and outlook on life changes. Although at first he seemed afraid to associate with a blind man, Robert's outgoing personality left him with virtually no choice. During Robert's visit, he proved to be a normal man, and showed the speaker that by closing his eyes, he could open his mind.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Raymond Carver utilizes his character of the husband, who is also the narrator, in his short story "Cathedral." From the beginning of the story the narrator has a negative personality. He lacks compassion, has a narrow mind, is detached emotionally from others, and is jealous of his wife's friendship with a blind man named Robert. He never connects with anyone emotionally until the end of this 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.
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.
In “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, the narrator creates a connection with the blind man. He not only overcomes stereotypes, but also conquers his own blindness to the world around him. His whole perspective of blind men changes when he is told to close his own eyes and draw a cathedral with Robert (the blind man), therefore leading him to overcome his own “blindness”.
Raymond Carver’s, Cathedral, opens eyes not by seeing, but by creating a sense of understanding by enhancing the importance of perspective. Carver introduces a character by the name of Robert, a blind man who teaches the narrator to reconsider the meaning of sight by acknowledging the beauty of the unknown. Robert from Cathedral, defies the meaning of sight, by subtly educating the narrator that life is not about what is seen, but about the significance of events and experiences.