Blind Faith in Raymond Carver's Cathedral 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. The speaker's prejudice was nearly overwhelming at the opening of the story. "His being blind bothered me," he said. "A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to." He had never really come in personal contact with anyone before who was blind, and seemed to have no idea of what to expect. He admittedly gathered a stereotypical mind set about blind people from movies, assuming they "moved slowly and never laughed." The character's prejudice was also evident when he asked about Robert's deceased wife. Upon hearing her name Beulah, he asked, "Was his wife a Negro?" Immediately, his wife seemed offended at the question. The paragraphs that follow are important to the story. The speaker informs the readers that his wife told him the story of Robert and Beulah. H... ... middle of paper ... ...interracial relationships. However because of the way he acts when he hears about the two of them, it is obvious that he has led a sheltered life. But even after his entire life of not understanding what was going on in the world around him, one night with Robert enlightened him and changed his view on people and his surrounding environment. Works Cited and Consulted Bethea, Arthur F. "Carver's Cathedral" The Explicator. Spring 1998: 132-134. Carver, Raymond. "Cathedral." The Harper Anthology of Fiction. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. 1052-1062. Nesset, Kirk. "Insularity and Self-Enlargement in Raymond Carver's 'Cathedral.'" Essays in Literature. March 22, 1994: 116.
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.
Carver, Raymond. “Cathedral.” Reading Literature and Writing Argument. Ed. Missy James and Alan Merickel. Fourth ed. Boston: Longman, 2011. 513-23. Print.
Carver, Raymond. "Cathedral." The Harper Anthology of Fiction. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. 1052-1062.
Blindness in Raymond Carver's Cathedral Blindness creates a world of obscurity only to be overcome with guidance from someone willing to become intimate with the blind. Equally true, the perceptions of blindness can only be overcome when the blind allow intimacy with the sighted. Raymond Carver, with his short story Cathedral, illustrates this point through the eyes of a man who will be spending an evening with a blind man, Robert, for the first time. Not only does this man not know Robert, but his being blind, "bothered" (Carver 98) him.
Reagan said he could not recall whether he knew in advance about the 1985 arms shipments and that he knew nothing about the diversion of funds. Both actions had been carried out by staff of the National Security Council (NSC), a White House intelligence and policy coordinating agency. Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver L. North, an NSC aide, was the person most closely involved in the management of the Iran-contra operations.
The iran-contra affair was a huge scandal it is also called a Irangate, Contragate or in other words what people would call it would be the Iran Contra scandal. The affair or scandal pedal faster on the second term of Ronald Reagan is the president of the United States of that time. Administration of the CIA of the senior office of the White House had secretly made the sale of weapons to Iran, it was otherwise known as an arms embargo. what an embargo means is to break the band or trade or other commercial activity with another country but that is what officials were trying to successfully do by re securing the release of U.S hostages and to fund the Contras in Nicaragua.
Carver, Raymond. "Cathedral." The Harper Anthology of Fiction Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1991.
“The Watergate Files”. The Ford Library. 1995. The Gerald Ford Library and Museum. 5 May
McGeary, Johanna, et al. "Inside Watergate's Last Chapter." Time 165.24 (2005): 28. History Reference Center. Web. 9 Jan. 2014.
Yet Arnold has gone down in history not as a hero but as a villain, a military traitor who, as commander of the American fort at West Point, New York, in 1780, schemed to hand it over to the British.
Did you know the name “Benedict Arnold” is often used as a synonym for the word “traitor” ? Benedict Arnold was not the kindest or most honest person when he was alive but he was once a great american hero. Many believe that he was just a cold hearted traitor who betrayed america for money and greed . Maybe that is true but you can not make up assumptions about him before you know anything really about him. In my project I learned many things that surprised me and also changed my perspective on who Benedict Arnold was. After reading my research project maybe you will come to a different view of him as well and if not maybe now you will have evidence as to why you feel that way.
Caldwell, Tracey. "Raymond Carver's 'Cathedral'." Literary Contents in Short Stories (2006): 1-8. Literary Reference Center. Web. 5 Nov. 2010
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.
Carvers Cathedral Plato’s “Myth of the Cave” and Carver’s Cathedral provide insight into parallel words. The protagonists in each story are trapped in a world of ignorance because each is comfortable in the dark, and fearful of what knowledge a light might bring. They are reluctant to venture into unfamiliar territory. Fortunately the narrator in the Cathedral is forced by circumstances to take a risk. This risk leads him into new world of insight and understanding.
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.