Compare Cathedral And John Updike

I. Introduction

Both Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral” and John Updike’s short story “A&P” contain two main characters that stereotype a group of people, but in the end this provokes them to have a revelation in the way they view themselves and the people around them. For Sammy in the story “A&P” it is the young, girls who bring about his change of heart and for the husband in “Cathedral” it is the blind man Robert. The two story lines relate as the two main characters view the stereotyped groups of people negatively. The girls and the blind man are viewed as intruders into the main characters’ daily lives. The two catalysts “the girls” and “Robert” are the cause of change, a real eye opener for the two main characters of the stories,

This is demonstrated by the way the husband refers to Robert as “This blind man” (Carver) and “his being blind bothers me” (Carver). The thought of a blind man staying in his house made him uncomfortable. The husband uses sarcasm towards Robert is another clear indication of how he feels towards this blind man. He demonstrates no respect to the fact that Robert is blind and gives Robert little value. He said “maybe I’ll take him bowling” (Carver) just to bother his wife and make her feel bad. The similarity with the story “A&P” by John Updike is that Sammy, the main character, is that he believes he has the girls all figured out and that they are all just a piece of meat and he thinks that he can choose which ever one he wants, much like the husband thinks that he is above the blind man and that the blind man is nothing but a nuisance. Sammy also uses sarcasm to depreciate the girl’s worth as he refers to the one who he dubs as the leader of the girls as “queenie” (Updike and Delessert). Both characters show a sort of disrespect towards the other characters in the

When the girls in bikinis walk into the A&P store, Sammy surprised by what the girls are wearing and how they act as if this is normal, Updike demonstrates Sammy’s surprised feeling when Sammy says “You know, it’s one thing to have a girl in a bathing suit down on the beach, but another thing in the cool of the A & P” (Updike and Delessert). Sammy then describes the usual patrons of the A&P as “women with six children and varicose veins mapping their legs” (Updike and Delessert). While working at A&P Sammy is accustomed to appropriately dressed customers who enter the store. Similarly, the husband in “Cathedral” is also overthrown from his daily routine when Robert comes to visit him and his wife. He is apprehensive about Robert coming because he is used to being alone with his wife, and the fact that Robert is blind throws his daily routine off balance. The husband says to his wife, “Maybe I could take him bowling” (Carver). This joke towards his wife, although obviously sarcastic, demonstrates his feeling towards any change in his day to day life. The random arrival of these people forces Sammy and the husband to re-evaluate their views on life and what these unexpected arrivals mean to