Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Blindness in literature
Blindness in literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
What makes a brotherhood, and how does the short story "Cathedral” relates to brotherhood? In the “Cathedral”, Robert and the Narrator connect over a drawing. The drawing help changes the outcome of the Narrator thoughts of blind people. "Cathedral" helps us understand brotherhood and how you don 't have to be blood-related to join a brotherhood. In the "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, you can experience a newly form brotherhood by two completely opposite characters who are able to form an alliance. The Narrator lacks awareness of others, but with Robert’s help, the Narrator is able to finally see the world in from a different point of view, and this opens him up to create a bond with Robert. In "Cathedral", you see the unity between two men, …show more content…
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
In Raymond Carver’s story, “Cathedral,” the story tells of how a close outside relationship can threaten a marriage by provoking insecurities, aggravating communication barriers, and creating feelings of invasion of privacy. The husband in the story is given the gift of seeing the cathedral through a blind man’s eyes. Although the title suggests that the story is about a cathedral, it is really about two men who come together and share a vision and realize it is he who is blind. As the story begins, the character of the husband has a negative personality. He lacks compassion, is narrow-minded, and is jealous of his wife’s friendship with a blind man named Robert.
William Shenstone states, “Jealousy is the fear of apprehension of superiority: envy our easiness under it.” The main character in the short story “Cathedral,” written by a well written American short story Author, Raymond Carver, is a married man with doubts of another man from his wife’s past, making him jealous. Carver uses the husband to narrate the short story. The setting takes place in the house of the husband. The story tells about Robert, the antagonist who lost his wife and visits his old friend. The envious character causes conflict with himself about the relationship of the wife and friend. The protagonist’s uneasiness of meeting the old friend starts from the beginning before his arrival. Robert, the blind
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.
From the beginning of the story, and throughout most of it until the end, the narrator makes comments about his dislike for blind people. He is unwilling to meet Robert, his wife’s friend of 10 years because he can’t see. The narrator is so fixed on his physical handicap that it makes him unable to try and get to know Robert’s character at all. His
The limitations that were holding the narrator back were abolished through a process from which a blind man, in some sense, cured a physically healthy man. The blind man cured the narrator of these limitations, and opened him up to a whole world of new possibilities. Robert enabled the narrator to view the world in a whole new way, a way without the heavy weights of prejudice, jealousy, and insecurity holding him down. The blind man shows the narrator how to see.
The short story of the “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver shows the narrator as the main character of the story whose name is never mentioned. The narrator’s wife’s name is never mentioned as well, and her friend who is a blind man is coming to visit after losing his wife whose name is Robert. In the beginning of the story, the narrator shows that he is an excessive drinker and feels emotionally disconnected from his wife and his wife is excited about her friends visit, Robert. This kind of emotion makes him uneasy but doesn’t know why and because he knows that Robert is blind, he feels like he is better than him. Imagine having to meet a long time old friend of your spouse of the opposite sex who they a special friendship with and whom you haven’t
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.
(Carver 34). Ultimately, while he shows no support to his significant other, the blind man fills in that emotional void with much-needed gratefulness. I agree with Keeping the Reader when he writes, "His [narrator] problem is that he does not 'see' his wife in the sense that he does not seek to understand who she is. The apparent difference between the men is that Robert, despite his physical lack of vision, is open to new experiences" (Clark 108). Clearly, the storyteller keeps himself emotionally disconnected from his wife and speaks of her past experiences, "He talks about her suicide attempt and previous marriage in a coldly analytical way, as if he can barely believe that it truly happened" (Clark 109).
In Raymond Carver’s story “Cathedral” the narrator learns what it means to “see” through someone who cannot. To see is to be able to view the things around us while putting aside preconceived notions or fear about these objects or people. In order for this to occur once must overcome what they feel is out of the ordinary and learn to accept things as they are. At first the narrator is doesn’t accept the man and uncomfortable around Robert. The narrator soon comes to understand this when he puts aside his fears, and judgments that he can see more than what meets the eye, and the freedom that comes along with this seeing.
“Cathedral” consists of three individuals. The narrator is the main character, which the story revolves around. The wife of the narrator is the second character, who is the least relevant. The third character is the blind man, named Robert, who is a friend of the wife.
A metamorphosis is an act of change or a transformation from one thing to another. Most associate a metamorphosis with the process in which a caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly. However, metamorphoses occur in humans as well. Cathedral is a story of man, the narrator, who experiences a life changing metamorphosis in an unexpected manner. The narrator is first introduced to the reader as an insensitive and ignorant man, and he reveals these characteristics in many ways throughout the majority of the story. However, interaction with a blind man not only exploits the narrator's character flaws, but is ultimately the catalyst for his metamorphosis.
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.
This story is about how the narrator is unable to see what life is really giving him and finds it through a blind man’s eyes, the friend of his wife. Cathedral is a touching story, in my opinion, as it reflects on what many of us, society, take for granted. It shows how important it is to give people a chance and to be able to see the true meaning of what surrounds us even if it is not important to our personal life. Throughout the short story, Carver uses several figurative language to expose the theme of the story.
Overall, the cathedral that the narrator draws with Robert represents true sight, the ability to see beyond the surface to the true meaning that lies within. The husband’s insecurities makes him emotionally blind. His inability to see past Robert’s disability ultimately prevents him from seeing the reality of any relationship or person in the story. The husband becomes more sensitive and accepts the moment of being blind has allowed him to become a better man. Finally, the cathedral drawing ironically reveals blindness to be an important factor. As a result, Carver gives interesting lessons to powerfully assess how we can find beauty and free ourselves from prejudgments and see the real world with our minds, not only our eyes.