cathedral

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Recommended: Use of Symbolism

“Cathedral” a short story by Raymond Carver shows how a visit from a blind man affects the lives of a married couple. The three main characters are the husband who is the narrator, the wife, and Robert. The husband is a close minded and cynical man who is upset because Robert is staying in his house because he does not know how to treat a blind man. The wife is a kind woman who has a closer relationship with Roberts than with her husband. Robert is a blind man who just lost her wife and is staying with his friend and her husband. In “Cathedral,” Raymond Carver uses symbolism to show the weakness and strengths of humans.
One of the symbols that the author uses in “Cathedral” is drinking which shows how humans use drinking as a form of escaping of their problems, but at the same time drinking helps the narrator to have a more open mind. In the story drinking is present many times, when the wife tried to kill herself, when the husband is waiting for her wife and the blind man, when the husband meets Robert, and when the husband, the wife and Robert eat and when they watch television. According to Caldwell Tracy “The narrator's disaffected state of being seems exacerbated by his turn to alcohol and drugs, which he uses both to provide a comfort level during Robert's visit and as a strategy to deal with his frequent nightmares.” Drinking in the story can be seen as a way of escaping reality because one knows that the husband is lonely an alcohol is a way of forgetting that. “I did the drinks, three big glasses of Scotch with a splash of water in each. Then we made ourselves comfortable and talked about Robert’s travels” (436), this quote shows how drinking in the story was the form in which the husband and Robert star socializing and ...

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...at uses symbolism to show how a person weakness can become strength. The symbols being drinking which represent a form of escaping and letting ones guard down, the blindness of Robert which represents that a weakness can become an strength, and the drawing of a cathedral which represent the faith and freedom that the narrator acquires at the end of the story.

Works Cited
Caldwell, Tracy M."Cathedral." Literary Contexts In Short Stories: Raymond Carver's 'Cathedral' (2006): 1-8. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.
Carver, Raymond. “Cathedral.” Kirszner and Mandell 432-442.
Delaney, Bill. "Cathedral." Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition (2004): 1-2. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.
Kirszner, Laurie G.,and Stephen R. Mandell., eds. Literature: Reading, Reacting,Writing. 8th ed. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage, 2013. Print.

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