The Role Of The Husband In Flannery O Connor's Cathedral

Back in the when segregation was the norm, many people were extremely closed minded. Many lived their lives with their preconceived ideas of the environment around them, judgment was spoken aloud, and equality did not exist. Many people refused to be around individuals that they found to be different and/or did not fit society’s standards of what the norms were. For instance, the characters that will be compared have a very close minded view of others and were quick to assume that w. The purpose of this paper is to compare the character known as the husband in the “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver to Julian’s mother in “Everything That Rises Must Converge” by Flannery O’Connor. To start off, “Everything That Rises Must Converge" and "Cathedral"

The climax occurs when the story moves a confrontation between the narrator and the blind man and begins when the wife goes to sleep and the two men drink and smoke marijuana together. In the end of the story the husband finally understands Robert and relates to him, he exemplifies that by saying, “My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I know that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything. “It’s really something,” I said” (Carver 465). In "Cathedral", the husband has an epiphany, when he and Robert were drawing a cathedral with their eyes closed together. The reasoning for the husband keeping his eyes closed was because he finally comprehends Robert being blind. This is shocking because initially he could not fathom a blind person. The difference being the "Cathedral" the protagonist’s epiphany led to a friendship and understanding. As stated by Beattie, “the blind man eventually provokes an ability to imagine in our main character, and the host does become more enthusiastic and more interested in the evening. What is a cathedral? Both seem to end up fulfilled, at story's end, in their various, odd ways, even though we continue to squirm. This is a much too quick paraphrase and does not begin to describe this weirder-than-life-because-it-is-life story” (57). The narrator not only shares his vision with the blind Robert, but he

Julian’s mother is hard to argue with, much less able to convince. She completely isolates herself to new ideas or arguments. Her hate for integration is characterized by, “It’s ridiculous. It’s simply not realistic. They should rise, yes, but on their own side of the fence. The one I feel sorry for, are the ones that are half white. They’re tragic” (O’Connor 214). Though Julian tries to make his mother see the social change that was happing, she could not get out of her old ways. Julian and his mother have entirely different social ideas. Julian is more accepting of the social change, however, his mother is still stuck in the past. For example, in the story, Julian’s mother said, “I see we have the bus to ourselves” (O’Connor 216). Referring to being excited about the fact that the bus was only whites. Boudreaux describes this by explaining O’ Connor’s writing format stating, “At first glance, the two are remarkably similar: both stories center on the journey of an old woman and at least one member of her family; each of the old women is of the Old South and holds its values, and each woman finds herself the victim of seemingly random violence”