Cathedral
I found ‘Cathedral’ to be a very warming story. Throughout Carver’ story, we meet a blind man, a wife, and the wife’s husband. Three very particular and determined people in their own way. We quickly learn that the story is told from the husband’s point of view, where he starts his story off explaining that a blind man is coming to stay with them while he visits his dead wife’s relatives. The husband is quick to acknowledge the fact he is not happy with having a blind man in his house, let alone a man he has never met but on tape, and a man that has an unusual relationship with his wife. Who though, in this story, is the actual blind man?
The husband is very quick to judge. He explains that a blind man has no business being in their house, and that their house even equipped to holding a blind man. The husband, whom remained nameless throughout the story, judges the blind man for marrying a woman whom he had never seen. It seems as if the husband lives his life through his eyes, not his heart. I find him to be on the jealous side as well, as he frequently makes snide remarks about how his wife has a relationship with a blind man, who let him touch her face.
Along with being quick to judge, I feel that the husband is not very considerate (well, anyone can tell that by reading the story, I suppose), and not very supportive. He does not think much of his wife’s poetry, which is obvious that it means something to her and she enjoys doing. He is not considerate or supportive of her having such a friendly relationship with the blind man. The story does not tell much of the blind man’s age until the middle of the story, and one could assume he was an older man. Not one in his 40s. The husband certainly has people issues, as he cannot maintain a positive conversation.
With that, it brings me to the point of discussion on when the blind man actually arrives. The husband treats the blind man (whom is now deemed Robert) like an alien. The husband’s small talk of trains and whiskey and scotch leads him to think that the only thing he knew about blind people were that they didn’t smoke because they couldn’t see the exhaled remnants.
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. His constantly complains that “a blind man in my house was not something [he looked] forward to” (362). The close outside friendship between the narrator’s wife and Robert provokes his insecurities. This friendship has lasted for ten years and during those years, they have exchanged countless tapes regarding experiences they have gone through. Because of this, her husband feels “she [has] told him everything or it so it seemed” (363) about their relationship.
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.
In the story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, the main character, goes through a major personal transformation. At the beginning of the story, his opinions of others are filled with stereotypes, discrimination and prejudice. Through interaction with his wife's blind friend Robert, his attitude and outlook on life changes. Although at first he seemed afraid to associate with a blind man, Robert's outgoing personality left him with virtually no choice. During Robert's visit, he proved to be a normal man, and showed the speaker that by closing his eyes, he could open his mind.
As a result of his inability to relate with Robert, he thinks his behaviors are odd, and is unable to understand the relationship he has with his wife. His wife worked for this blind man many years ago, reading him reports and case studies, and organizing his "...little office" (Carver 98) in the county's social-service department. He remem¬ bers a story his wife told about the last day she worked for him. The blind man asked her if he could touch her face, and she agreed.
The irony between Robert and the narrator is that even though Robert is blind, he pays attention to detail without the need of physical vision. Roberts’s relationship with the narrator’s wife is much deeper than what the narrator can understand. Robert takes the time to truly listen to her. “Over the years, she put all kinds of stuff on tapes and sent the tapes off lickety-split. [...] She told him everything, or so it seemed to me” (Carver 124). This demonstrates that the narrator is in fact somewhat jealous of how his wife confides in Robert, but still overlooks the fact that he doesn’t make the slightest effort to pay attention to her. Also the narrator is not precisely blind, but shows a lack of perception and sensitivity that, in many ways, makes him blinder than Robert. Therefore, he has difficulty understanding people’s views and feelings that lie beneath the surface.
The narrator makes his opinions clear from the very beginning. In the first paragraph of the story he states, “A blind man in my house was not something that I looked forward to” (Carver, 34). This opinion continues on throughout almost the entire story. The narrator has no logical reason to explain why the thought of a blind man in his home makes him so uncomfortable either. He states that he has formed his opinion from movies where blind people move very slowly and never laugh. This is the only evidence he uses to defend his opinion, which is a very weak argu...
Many people view blindness as a disability, but could these people be blind to their surroundings? Even though the narrator can perfectly see with his eyes, he lacks in understanding awareness. The narrator blindness isn 't physical, like many vision impaired people. His blindness is psychological, and his blindness causes him to become jealous. His blindness blocks his perception of viewing the world in a different way. This only causes him to see the physical attributes of humans, and thus shut off his mindfulness of viewing human personalities. As a result of a closed mind, the narrator doesn 't understand how Robert was able to live with the fact that he was never able to see his wife in the flesh, but the narrator fails to see that Robert vision of his wife was intimate. On the other hand, Robert blindness is physical. This causes Robert to experience the world in a unique manner. Without Robert eyesight, he is able to have a glimpse of a human personality. He uses his disability to paint pictures in his head to experience the world. By putting his psychological blindness aside, the narrator is able to bond with Robert, and he grasps the understanding of opening his eyes for the first time, and this forms a new beginning of a
Throughout the text the narrator is either jealous or scared and has some idea of what a blind person should look or be like. “I have never met, or known anyone personally who was blind.” (pg.347) The narrator feels uncomfortable about having a blind man in the house because he doesn’t know how to be around blind people in general. He doesn’t feel comfortable with making someone else comfortable when he doesn’t know how to react. “A blind man in my house was not so...
The narrator is uneasy with the thought of Robert staying in his house and believes that he is superior to the blind man. Even before an introduction is satisfied between the narrator and Robert, the narrator is a bit disturbed to have Robert staying in his house. Within the first paragraph of the story, the narrator’s agitation towards Robert is made apparent. “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (Carver 33). The narrator assumes from Robert’s blindness that he is going to just be a nuisance to have to host because
We see in the wife how straightforward she is but at times she cannot express herself fully just like the husband she does this when she gets upset and throws the potato to the ground in anger. Makes it feel as there is an underlying problem going on that the reader does not know about. Robert means hope to the wife because he is one of the oldest friends she has. She and her husband do not have mutual friends and she hopes for him to recognize the blind man as a possibility for him to make friends and share something in common to bring them closer she emphasizes that if he loves her that he would be nice to Robert therefor it is visible the pressure that is out in the husband to perform well when he meets Robert and understand that he is a dear friend of his wife. The wife trying to pay attention to Robert forgets how her husband feels about this situation and underestimates the narrator feelings. In the short story we realize that contact is always the best connection you can have, examples are when the blind says this beats the tapes when he is talking to the wife also at the end when the husband creates the painting of the cathedral instead of dictating it to Robert. For the narrator the routine the monotony, and his own limited vision leads him to encounter an experience that he once never felt before it was describing a picture to a blind man without having to speak a word. Meanwhile this was going on the wife had fallen asleep and all of this progress between them was occurring. Again, something amazing that is not visible. The ending concludes abruptly because it does not say if the husband and Robert became good friends or the wife gets closer to the husband because of his newly relationship with one of her friends or if he just went back to being superficial and at times ignorant. In spite of the narrator's jokes, and exaggerated assumptions. He is more blind than
In both stories the main characters were disengaged. In “Cathedral” The husband was disengaging with his wife he mention he found himself thinking what a “pitiful live” the blind man’s lived, he says:
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.
In my opinion, I believe that the short story, Cathedral, is a clear representation that a person can change and can be able to understand personal feeling and emotions without trying to actually see them and/or touch them. Also, Carver makes the narrator seem as if he is a real person that the reader can relate to. Specifically, when the narrator feels awkward about his wife bringing the blind man for a visit or when he finally meets the blind man and offers him a joint. These experiences that the narrator has are real experiences that the reader may at one point also feel or encountered. Overall, the short story is one that should be read by all college students as it is a good genre and easy to read as well as to understand and relate.
The husband's view on the world at the start of the story was a narrow one that was based on his ignorance, which prevented him from gaining understanding. His long held misconceptions, especially about blindness, defined his expectations about things he did not understand. For instance, when the husband found out that Robert was coming to stay, he disliked the idea of someone who was blind, let alone someone who he didn't know, coming to visit and the husband's "idea of blindness came from the movies." He saw the blind people as people who "moved slowly and never laughed." This was not the limit of his ignorance as it was further displayed by his constant referral of Robert as "the blind man" and his assumption of Robert's deceased wife being a black person based solely on the name of Beulah. This assumption display his bigotry is not limited to Robert's blindness and that differences that he did not understan...
Robert is a strong man who does not allow his visual impairment to stop him from having a real life. The narrator tells us that he works for a social-security department. The fact that Robert has a job like this lets the reader see that he is a hard workingman. When the narrator listens to his wife and Robert catching up he learns that Robert has actually done a lot of things in his life. This is discussed when the narrator recaps, “Robert had done a little of everything, it seemed, a regular blind jack of all trades.” (Page 83) His disability doesn’t hold him back from being successful. Robert does need more assistance then others in his position. He needed to hire someone to read his cases to him, which is how he meets the narrator’s wife. Robert appreciated everything that the narrator’s wife did for him and built a relationship with the narrator’s wife. This is established when the narrator says, “They became good friends, my wife and the blind man” (Page 77). The formulatio...