Rick N. Ruiz-Estrada Sara Kaplan English 1302.710 21 September 2015 Turning a Blind-Eye Through the short story, “Cathedral,” by Raymond Carver, occasions of the husband’s character change the connection once lost through blindness. Through a blind man’s innovative technique, the husband’s demeanor radically improves through one man’s handicap. Although the character’s change in behavior occurs shortly before the end of the story the husband and Robert sit on the floor to draw a cathedral, there are a few climaxes in the story that greatly begin to shape the husband’s overall perspective in life. Carver describes the setting of the story, which takes place in a middle-class apartment in New York, which gives a powerful shift in the husband’s …show more content…
connection to Robert. The author of this short story describes that blindness can obscure one’s vision even with perfect sight. Carver’s straightforward description of the husband’s jealousy, prejudice and acceptance leads to a transformation of eventual rational and improved behavior. Carver symbolizes the husband’s jealousy through his wife’s relationship with the “blind man” and her “ex-husband.” Carver describes the narrator’s point of view, “I’m saying that at the end of the summer she let the blind man run his hands over her face, said goodbye to him, married her childhood etc., who was now a commissioned officer, and she moved away from Seattle” (33). The husband’s insecurity with his wife’s relationship with the blind man and first husband demonstrates the powerful isolation he holds. While watching through the window, you can sense a bit of jealousy and unhappiness when the narrator saw his wife smiling and laughing. Furthermore, considering seeing his wife with another man adds to his physical factors. The wife states, “I want you to meet Robert. Robert, this is my husband. I’ve told you all about him. She was beaming” (35). At this point, you can sense the husband is blinded by the connection his wife has with Robert. While Robert and the husband’s wife hold a conversation in the living room, the husband begins to have thoughts of the blind man. The husband ponders a deep thought and begins to characterize the blind man, “He wore brown slacks, brown shoes, a light-brown shirt, a tie, a sports coat. Spiffy. He also had this full beard. But he didn’t use a cane and he didn’t wear glasses” (36). This reveals that the husband sees Robert as a handicap, instead of seeing him as a person with beliefs and considerations. An early passage the narrator describes, “And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movies” (33). The narrator exhibits strong bigotry and further amplifies his thoughtlessness by stereotyping a man he has never met. As the story continues, the narrator begins a shift in his behavior and acceptance towards Robert.
While eating dinner, the husband observes and describes a scene, “I watched with admiration as he used his knife and fork on the meat” (37). The husband knows that Robert cannot see his food but takes notice in how precisely he is cutting and eating his food. Also, why the wife is sleeping on the sofa Robert responds to the husband, “We haven’t had a chance to talk…I feel like me and her monopolized the evening” (39). The husband responds, “That’s all right,” I said. Then I said, “I’m glad for the company” (39). These two quotations demonstrate that the husband is beginning to feel comfortable and a sense of attachment to …show more content…
Robert. A critical but most important event is where the husband begins to look at Robert as a human being rather than a handicap while discussing a cathedral. As a cathedral appears on the television the husband briefly describes the outside to Robert. While the husband has a hard time to explain what a cathedral looks like Robert asks the husband, “Can I ask you something…Are you in any way religious?” (41). While shaking his head, the husband responds, “I guess I don’t believe in it. In anything” (41). This could further explain the reasoning in why Robert would ask the husband to retrieve paper and a pen. It is fair to say that Robert recognized remoteness in the husband’s voice that led to a powerful setting of the story. This reinforces the argument that the husband is beginning to see things more clear and why Robert wants to draw a cathedral together. In general the final conflict is beginning to immerge despite in the change the husband’s behavior.
While drawing a cathedral together, the husband’s wife wakes up with a glare and asks her husband, “What are you doing? Tell me, I want to know” (42). By electing to keep his eyes closed it is revealed that the husband is seeing things in a more meaningful perspective way. Further analysis reveals when Robert wants the husband to look at the drawing, “My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything. It’s really something” (42). The husband now feels a connection nothing through Robert’s hand, more than just a blind
man. Through Carver’s exquisite first-person narrative of the story, brought the husband’s character to life. His brilliant details in the initial setting, transformed the husband’s isolation into accepting with closed eyes. A powerful setting that took place in the living room after dinner further improved the husband’s behavior. While Carver provided details in the husband and the blind man’s character, his exceptional transcendence from the setting’s captivating moments of the husband’s behavior, provide to a suspenseful experience. If everyone would follow the example of the blind man’s gentleness and eloquently way of reaching out to someone, the world would be less prejudice and accepting place. A blind man would certainly turn a blind eye. Work Cited Carver, Raymond. “Cathedral.” The Norton Introduction to Literature Shorter 11th Edition. Ed. Kelly Mays. New York: Norton, 2013. 32-42. Print.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.
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.
Robert tells the narrator to find some heavy paper and pencils so they can draw a cathedral together. As they drew Robert tells the narrator to close his eyes. There was a connection made between Robert and the narrator and he says, "it was like nothing else in my life up to now." Robert tells him to open his eyes, but he doesn?t because he doesn?t want the experience to end.
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.
The short story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver is about a woman who has a blind friend who comes to visit her and her husband. Although the husband has, technically, normal vision he is in the beginning of this story the one who is "blind." Through the husband’s words and actions when he is dealing with Robert, the blind man, we can see that the husband does not "see" or understand what Robert’s blindness means or how it changes or does not change him as a human being. At first Robert makes the husband very uncomfortable, for the husband does not know what to say or do around the blind visitor. As the story progresses, we can see a change in the husband; he seems to be able to see Robert as a person and not just as a blind man.
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.
The husband is a very traditional man in the sense that he does not enjoy new or different things as much as the average person. In the story he states, “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (Carter 34). There are a few different hints within the story that show how little he enjoys
In "The Compartment," one of Raymond Carver's bleakest stories, a man passes through the French countryside in a train, en route to a rendevous with a son he has not seen for many years. "Now and then," the narrator says of the man, "Meyers saw a farmhouse and its outbuildings, everything surrounded by a wall. He thought this might be a good way to live-in an old house surrounded by a wall" (Cathedral 48). Due to a last minute change of heart, however, Meyers chooses to stay insulated in his "compartment" and, remaining on the train, reneges on his promise to the boy, walling out everything external to his selfish world, paternal obligation included.