The Theme Of Blindness In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

1271 Words3 Pages

“Cathedral,” a short story written by Raymond Carver, presents an intriguing story of an ignorant man 's lesson. During this story, Carver 's working class characters are crushed by broken marriages, financial issues, and fulfilling jobs, but they are frequently unable to understand or communicate their own sufferings. However, the main story consists of the narrator, known as “Bub,” facing an internal conflict about a blind man named Robert staying the night in his home. Regardless of the fact that this blind man is his wife 's long time friend, the narrator cannot find himself comfortable with such an idea because of his extreme prejudices. Although, despite the narrator’s conflict he finds himself connecting to Robert on a more personal …show more content…

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

Show More
Related

  • Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Birth-Mark, Raymond Carver’s Cathedral, and Randall Kenan’s The Foundations of the Earth

    1364 Words  | 3 Pages

    Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral” opens with a narrator whose wife has invited a blind friend to spend the night. The narrator depersonalizes the man right off the bat and repeatedly throughout the story by referring to him, not by name, but as “the blind man” (Carver 513). He admits that hi...

    Read More

  • The Character Of Bub In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

    950 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Literary Devices in Carver's Cathedral

    1505 Words  | 4 Pages

    Carver tells the story in first person of a narrator married to his wife. Problems occur when she wants a friend of hers, an old blind man, to visit for a while because his wife has died. The narrator's wife used to work for the blind man in Seattle when the couple was financial insecure and needed extra money. The setting here is important, because Seattle is associated with rain, and rain symbolically represents a cleansing or change. This alludes to the drastic change in the narrator in the end of the story. The wife and blind man kept in touch over the years by sending each other tape recordings of their voices which the narrator refers it to being his wife's "chief means or recreation" (pg 581).

    Read More

  • Blind Faith in Raymond Carver's Cathedral

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Religious Revelation in Carver’s Cathedral

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    At first glance, one might assume Raymond Carver’s "Cathedral" illustrates the awakening of an insensitive and insulated husband to the world of a blind man. However, this literal awakening does not account for the fact that the husband awakens also to a world of religious insight, of which he has also been blind. The title and story structure are the first indicators of the importance of the religious thesis. It is also revealed when one examines the language and actions of the characters in the story. Finally, Carver’s previous and subsequent writings give an overall background for the argument that "Cathedral" has a significant religious import.

    Read More

  • Lack of Vision in Carver's Cathedral

    1250 Words  | 3 Pages

    The narrator in Raymond Carver’s "Cathedral" is not a particularly sensitive man. I might describe him as self-centered, superficial, and egotistical. And while his actions certainly speak to these points, it is his misunderstanding of the people and the relationships presented to him in this story which show most clearly his tragic flaw: while Robert is physically blind, it is the narrator who cannot clearly see the world around him.

    Read More

  • The Character of the Husband in Raymond Carver's Story Cathedral

    1110 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Blindness in Raymond Carver's Cathedral

    888 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Imagery and Symbolism in Cathedral, by Raymond Carver

    935 Words  | 2 Pages

    Carver’s purpose of having the narrator of the short story use imagery allows for the reader to be able to understand each and every moment he lives while explaining the blind man’s, Robert, visit to his home. In Cathedral, the narrator tells the story very detailed and descriptive. For instance, when the narrator describes his wife’s arrival with Robert, “I saw my wife laughing as she parked the car. I saw her get out of the car and shut the door…She went around to the other side of the car to where the blind man was already starting to get out…he was wearing a full beard!” Here, the author makes the narrator describe the scene and details it as if he is describing it to a blind person. Most of the short story uses imagery which makes clear images in the reader’s mind to unders...

    Read More

  • Analysis of the Relationship of the Blind Man and the Husband

    941 Words  | 2 Pages

    Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" depicted the interaction between a narrow minded husband, with a limited understanding of the world around him, and a blind visitor, named Robert, that proved to be the catalyst that dramatically changed the husband's view on the world, while they went from being strangers to becoming friends. In the beginning of the story, the husband disliked the concept of his wife bringing her blind friend over to stay since he never had met a blind person before and did not understand it. However, as the story progresses, the husband, through interaction and observation, begins to dispel his fears and misconceptions of Robert and his blindness. With the help of Robert, the husband gains a revelation that changed his view and opened his eyes to the world.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In Raymond Carver's 'Cathedral'

    634 Words  | 2 Pages

    The point of view from the narrators perspective, highlights how self-absorbed and narrow-minded he is. “They’d married, lived and worked together, slept together—had sex, sure—and then the blind man had to bury her. All this without his having ever seen what the goddamned woman looked like. It was beyond my understanding” (Carver...

    Read More

  • Blindness in Cathedral by Raymond Carver

    596 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Raymond Carver's Cathedral

    1088 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the majority of the story Carver uses a variety of devices to portray the narrator negatively. One reason is that he lacks compassion. At the beginning of the story he says, "I wasn?t enthusiastic about his [the blind man?s] visit. He [the blind man] was no one I knew. And his [the blind man] being blind bothered me."

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Raymond Carver's Cathedral

    790 Words  | 2 Pages

    The unnamed narrator of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” poses as an unreliable narrator for his unaccepting nature towards blind people along with his ignorant perception of many realities in his life that Carver presents for the reader to take into question. The narrator holds prejudice against Robert, a blind man whom the narrator’s wife worked with ten years earlier and eventually befriends. Unperceptive to many of the actualities in his own life, the narrator paints an inaccurate picture of Robert that he will soon find to be far from the truth.

    Read More

  • Raymond Carver's Cathedral

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about The Theme Of Blindness In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

Open Document