Raymond Carver’s Cathedral is praised as one of the greatest short stories ever written. Aside from being technically sound and brilliant terms of the pacing and character development, the story itself elucidates a lot of interesting thematic elements. Before one can delve into the thematic elements, however, it is important to know a bit of the context. The story immediately frames itself from the perspective of the narrator, a nameless man whom we never know the true name of. He is married, and his wife at one time worked with a blind man, a man whom she developed a relationship with. This man would be coming to visit, and the narrator seems a bit uncomfortable with this. Immediately, we get an introduction to the theme of the story. One …show more content…
Immediately, we as the reader can immediately pick up on the foreshadowing here. As time would go on, the narrator meets the man, whom he pejoratively refers to as “the blind man.” There is a sense that while the bland man is physically blind, on the other hand, the narrator is blind himself. Rather than taking the time to know the man’s name, about his children, or anything else about him, he immediately calls him by the disparaging title, “the blind man.” Between the two, there is an awkwardness. The man attempts to probe and question a bit, the meaningless charade of small-talk, but as time goes on, there is finally a breakthrough. When the wife, the glue between the man and the blind man’s awkwardness, goes to sleep, there is a change in tone. Now, the man is forced to interact with the blind man. Immediately from the onset, we learn that the man himself is a bit of a misanthrope. The wife derides him for “having no friends” and as time goes on in the story, we hear judgmental and presumptive notions from the …show more content…
He keeps them closed, and the story ends brilliantly, “My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything. “It’s really something.” These lines epitomize the most important concept of theme in this story. Without a doubt, a big part of this story is learning to empathize and relate to those whom you don’t know. Too often, we make judgments and presumptions about people. We don’t know what it’s like to be like a lot of the people we judge, and when it comes to things like blindness or deafness, especially, we have trouble understanding where these people are coming from. At the end however, the man is closer to this blind man than he may have been with any friend in his life before that. For a few moments, even if it’s less than a minute, the man is just like the blind man. His eyes are closed, he is drawing, he is feeling, but more important anything else, he is understanding. In that fleeting moment of intimate connection, he and the man are as one. Their souls, their collective experiences are joined just from the strength of this one little cathedral
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 provides an easy, visual outlook of the protagonist throughout the short story, which helps keep a better understanding during the simple yet intense experience. As the story continues, the protagonist enhances his mood as he aids Robert to visualizing a cathedral. This experience creates an impact on others because it is a great reason to why one should never judge someone of something beyond their controls. Also, helping someone, as Robert does for Bub can be a life changing experience. Despite the blind man being physically blind, the husband is the one with the disability to see from someone else’s perspective. This is proven through his epiphany during his portrayal of being blind. Although Bub is not physically blind, he interprets a shortage of observations. This shows that in many ways he is blinder than Robert. Robert is more open minded and willing to experience things, in contrast to Bub, who is narrow minded and has problems opening up his mind throughout the short story. Because the protagonist does not fully try to understand his wife, it makes him look like the blind person ironically though he can visually recognize her, proving that he does not truly know her inside and out. Knowing her personally is more of reality and the husband is blind to reality. Carver definitely analyzes the protagonist’s emotions through diction and visual aid throughout the story, providing great understanding of the meaning as a
Although many critics have written numerous accounts of Richard Carver’s "Cathedral" as being about revelation and overcoming prejudice, they have overlooked a very significant aspect: the unfolding of marital drama. The story tells of how a close outside friendship can threaten marriage by provoking insecurities, creating feelings of invasion of privacy, and aggravating communication barriers.
The short story, “Cathedral,” by Raymond Carver, is about a blind man who changes the way the narrator views life by giving him some insight on how he sees things. The characters in this short story are constantly developing into better versions of themselves by sharing their insights with one another.
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.
The narrator in Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" has two fully functional eyes, in which he chooses never to use to their full potential. The eyes of the narrator are biased, insecure, jealous, and very limited in what they choose to see. This inability to see is made apparent when he is forced to meet and converse with a blind man. The narrator's perception of the world around him, and blurred vision, is resolved by a great irony in the story when Roger helps the narrator see past his prejudice outlook on life. The blind man teaches the narrator how to see.
The short story of the “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver shows the narrator as the main character of the story whose name is never mentioned. The narrator’s wife’s name is never mentioned as well, and her friend who is a blind man is coming to visit after losing his wife whose name is Robert. In the beginning of the story, the narrator shows that he is an excessive drinker and feels emotionally disconnected from his wife and his wife is excited about her friends visit, Robert. This kind of emotion makes him uneasy but doesn’t know why and because he knows that Robert is blind, he feels like he is better than him. Imagine having to meet a long time old friend of your spouse of the opposite sex who they a special friendship with and whom you haven’t
The narrator, his wife, and the blind man spend the evening talking, but eventually the wife falls asleep. The narrator is uncomfortable about being left alone with a blind man. There is something about cathedrals on TV and the blind man asks the narrator to describe what a cathedral looks like. The narrator only describes physical things and so the blind man decides that they should try drawing one instead. As they draw the blind man and the narrator connect and a transformation in the narrator?s character takes place.
The short story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver is about a woman who has a blind friend who comes to visit her and her husband. Although the husband has, technically, normal vision he is in the beginning of this story the one who is "blind." Through the husband’s words and actions when he is dealing with Robert, the blind man, we can see that the husband does not "see" or understand what Robert’s blindness means or how it changes or does not change him as a human being. At first Robert makes the husband very uncomfortable, for the husband does not know what to say or do around the blind visitor. As the story progresses, we can see a change in the husband; he seems to be able to see Robert as a person and not just as a blind man.
...thedral together, so the husband got paper bag and a pen to draw on. They began drawing and after a few minutes, the blind man asked the husband to close his eyes and keep drawing. The husband felt different than he’d ever felt in his life. He kept his eyes closed when the blind man told him to open them and look, the husband replied, “It’s really something. (Carver 147)” The husband never thought he would have the experience he did with the blind man, as they basically became friends. The husband’s view of a blind person had changed. He saw life from a blind man’s perspective and actually appreciated it. Never judge a book by its cover, as you have no idea what may be inside of it.
...h it emotionally detached without the pleasure of living. In the end, when the narrator has his eyes closed drawing the cathedral, he is the most open he has even been to the world. The narrator’s limited point of view in the story was crucial in showing the reader that what will hold you back the most in life are your biases and judgments. If the story was told in Robert’s point of view, it would have been a joyful story about visiting a long time friend, even with the tragedy of his wife’s death. We would have never known of the prejudices that were held inside the husband, and no true theme would have come from the story. The limited point of view was used in a way that expanded upon the theme even more, and made for a stronger story structure.
In Raymond Carver’s story “Cathedral” the narrator learns what it means to “see” through someone who cannot. To see is to be able to view the things around us while putting aside preconceived notions or fear about these objects or people. In order for this to occur once must overcome what they feel is out of the ordinary and learn to accept things as they are. At first the narrator is doesn’t accept the man and uncomfortable around Robert. The narrator soon comes to understand this when he puts aside his fears, and judgments that he can see more than what meets the eye, and the freedom that comes along with this seeing.
The narrator's insensitivity reveals itself early in the story when his wife's blind friend, Robert, comes for a visit after the death of his wife. Almost immediately in the beginning of the story the narrator admits "A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to." [Carver 2368] He even goes so far as to suggest to his wife that he take the man bowling. He hears the story of Robert's dead wife and can not even imagine " what a pitiful life this woman must have led." [Carver 2370] The narrator is superficial, only recognizing the external part of people and not recognizing the value of a person on the inside.
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.