The Art of Perception: When Looking is Not Seeing. Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral" is a reflection on the process of human perception that underscores its essence. By means of the careful selection of characters, symbols, and motives, the author sheds light on the goals of perception and considers it on the basis of understanding art, which provides the reader with an insight to the profound difference between looking and seeing, two successive stages that complement each other. In this vein, it is worth exploring the concept of perception, framed in the literary settings through the prism of the aptitude to shape the observed into valuable experience. The art of perception is thus a complex process not only of hearing, looking, and touching things, it is an ability to see the depth of the observed, understand it, analyze it, and form a critical behavioral response. Through the …show more content…
character of a blind man, the author conceptualizes perception, reflecting upon the vitality of understanding that it is a meaningful process eventually transformed into experiential stratum. Raymond Carver creates three characters and analyses their ways of perceiving realia and it turns out that the transformation of perception into experience does not actually demand the stage of looking at the object of interest. The blind man, as the main character reflecting the underlying thematic aspect, represents that understanding what you see and analyzing it, is equally important as well as looking at it. Thus, the underlying character performs a significant function, he challenges the concept of human perception. The central symbol of the story, a cathedral, is the author's pledge to convey the main message: even a blind person can perceive the world better than a man able to see.
In this context, the narrator finds himself unable to tell the blind man what he sees on the picture, he cannot describe a cathedral properly. To show him how perception actually operates, the blind man suggests drawing it at the same time allowing his hands to feel the lines and get to know the unfamiliar object. Closing his eyes, the narrator finally becomes conscious of the fact that to transform perception into experience, he needs more efforts and attempts. As an object, representing art, cathedral becomes the landmark by means of which Carver persuades the reader in his finding. However, it is not the only representation of art. As the story unfolds, the reader may observe that the narrator's wife writes poetry that makes her feel the environment deeply. The narrator, though, is astonished to find out how the blind man manages to live without the ability to look at the surroundings and his wife in
particular. To support the argument that looking is not seeing, one may take a closer glimpse at the narration, as a product of someone's capacity to maintain perception at the level of creativity. Exploring the text of the short story, one may leap to a conclusion that it is not a masterpiece from a stylistic point of view. The narration coldly recreates the atmosphere, which means that the man looks, but cannot recognize that the behavior of his wife is meaningful and there are some concealed reasons to discern it as such. In this case, the reader notices that the author’s style of writing is adjusted to the deployment of the underlying theme of perception. To sum up the foregoing, there are reasons to suggest that Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral” is a contemplation over the topic of perception. Through the mastery of character-making and compelling, though rather coldly narrated, pretentious plot details, the author manages to show the reader the apparent stages of perception – looking and seeing – differentiating them into two different categories. As looking is a simple process of watching how and in what way something happens, seeing is the capacity to come to the depth of what happens and turning it into experience. Due to this, the blind man is able to perceive better than the narrator. The depth of the observed in “Cathedral” consists in people’s openness to the outside world and the ability to analyze what they see.
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
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.
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.
Nesset, Kirk. "Insularity and Self-Enlargement in Raymond Carver's 'Cathedral.'" Essays in Literature. March 22, 1994: 116.
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.
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.
“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
By becoming close with Robert, the man in this story experienced what was necessary to gain an understanding of what life is like for the blind. The man began to draw the cathedral to try and help Robert visualize what one looked like. What he didn't realize at the time was that Robert was helping him to visualize what blindness felt like. Bibliography: Carver, Raymond. "Cathedral".
Don’t judge a book by its cover. We have all heard this cliché at least once in our lifetime. But how many times have we ever followed through with this expression? The author Raymond Carver writes about an experience where a couple is visited by the wife’s acquaintance Robert, whose wife has recently passed. The fact that Robert is blind belittles him in the eyes of the narrator, causing tension and misjudgment. In “Cathedral”, Carver uses irony, point of view, and symbolism to show the difference between looking and truly seeing.
The narrator in Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" has two fully functional eyes, in which he chooses never to use to their full potential. The eyes of the narrator are biased, insecure, jealous, and very limited in what they choose to see. This inability to see is made apparent when he is forced to meet and converse with a blind man. The narrator's perception of the world around him, and blurred vision, is resolved by a great irony in the story when Roger helps the narrator see past his prejudice outlook on life. The blind man teaches the narrator how to see.
The narrator, his wife, and the blind man spend the evening talking, but eventually the wife falls asleep. The narrator is uncomfortable about being left alone with a blind man. There is something about cathedrals on TV and the blind man asks the narrator to describe what a cathedral looks like. The narrator only describes physical things and so the blind man decides that they should try drawing one instead. As they draw the blind man and the narrator connect and a transformation in the narrator?s character takes place.
We see the narrator in the beginning as a bitter and jealous man, but as the story unfolds, he changes to become more empathetic and emotional. This change in the personality of the narrator correlates with Carver's use of diction and tone. From conversation to confession, "Cathedral" is a work of art in the first-person narrative. By revealing this character through word choice and tone, the narrator comes alive and the story has more significance.
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.
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,
Therefore, his portrayal of the Cathedral goes up against a more human component, which frees the narrator and enables him to really observe spontaneously. The narrator’s good intentions are thwarted when he realizes he is unable to describe a cathedral. Even though he can see the cathedral, he is unable to describe the cathedral to Robert because he can’t “see” its deeper