The Use Of Point Of View In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

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Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral” shows that you can be judgmental against the blind but for example, in the main character’s case, can turn out to be you friend too. In his story, there is a lot of evidence of how society perceives people with disabilities. The main character begins by having the ablest point of view towards his wife’s friend. However, he soon finds out through his epiphany that the “blind man” is not different than he is. This essay will argue that “Cathedral” uses the narrator’s epiphany to shows how throughout the story people can overcome their ableism point of view. The contemporary relevance of this issue is reflected in the sources “Why Do We Fear the Blind” and “Feeling My Way Through Blindness” in that it gives …show more content…

For example, “Beulah! That’s a name for a colored woman. Was his wife a Negro?” (66). The beginning of his epiphany is when there at the dinner table. The narrator asks Robert the “blind man” what he would like to drink. He responds by saying “Bub, I am a scotch man myself” (67). He calls the main character “bub” as a sign of the blind man being comfortable with the main character. Then they all sit at the dinner table and talk about Roberts …show more content…

In the story “Cathedral” it gives us an ablest point of view. We do not get Roberts point of view in the story. To summarize, the main character does not want a blind man to come stay with him and his wife. Soon he finds out that blind people are no different than non-blind people. In Mahoney article, she explains what it means to be blind in other cultures. “Devout Colombian Catholics begged a priest to say a mass so that their blind infant son would die”.“The villagers in Kylie’s remote Tibetan village insisted that she and her family all just committed suicide.” We can see here that in other countries being blind hinders much bigger significance than living in the United States. Even though the United States has one of the lowest vision impairments rates in the world. We as Americans see being blind so bias. This is all because of lack of knowledge and ignorance for never making time to associate with a blind person. There are many people like our main character in “Cathedral” that are ablest and live in America. In other counties around the world being blind is a disgrace and brings shame to you

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