In the short story Cathedral written by Raymond Carver, he uses the aspect of characterization to develop the epiphany. The epiphany of this story is: a blind man makes the narrator "open his eyes." The narrator of this story believes that the blind man, Robert, would be a stereotypical blind man; however, he is the complete opposite. The main character being close-minded, shallow and prejudice leads him to his epiphany of seeing through a blind man's eye.
Carver uses the element of characterization to highlight the epiphany throughout the short story. With the narrator being close-minded, it helps develop the epiphany by showing how judgemental he is. The narrator is bothered about Robert being blind, and his understanding of being blind
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"Right then my wife filled me in with more detail that I cared to know" (3). He is very jealous of the relationship between Robert and his wife, which leads him to have such a judgemental opinion on Robert. Once the narrator met Robert, his thoughts on the blind were hindered, but not completely. He was still hesitant of the blind man and was not happy that he would be staying in their home. He began to judge Robert, calling him pathetic and creepy. However, he abided his wife's rules and was nice and kept his thoughts to himself. The narrator's judgmental and prejudice side was highlighted by the use of Carver's use of characterization. Toward the end of the story, the narrator begins to listen and respect Robert even with his condition. Even though he starts to think more respectively toward Robert, he still worries about the blind man. However once they start to bond over the TV topic of cathedrals, his mind and thoughts begin to change. After drawing and trying to explain the architecture of a cathedral, the narrator beings to fully comprehend the struggles of Robert and the condition of being blind. "(...) I thought it was something I ought to do. (...) 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," I said" (13). It was at that moment that the once judgemental man knew the difficulty of being blind and that he jumped ahead to conclusions. Robert helped the narrator see through his eyes. The narrator had the epiphany of seeing through a blind man's eye. At that point of the story, the narrator had completely changed his mind and did not judge
The story follows the narrator encountering his wife’s friend Robert, who is blind, and assimilating his prejudices throughout the encounter. When the story begins the narrator is more than closed off to the idea of the blind man visiting his home. He is uncomfortable with Robert’s knowledge of him because he does not wish to associate himself with a blind man, a condition which he looks down upon. When Robert arrives, he attempts to be friendly to the narrator, a sentiment that is little reciprocated. While never encountering a blind man, he has many preconceived notions prior to his arrival.
In both short stories, “Cathedral” written by Raymond Carver and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” written by Flannery O’Connor, we encounter characters that have a limited perspective on life. We find that the unnamed narrator in “Cathedral” has a bias mindset towards the blind man, Robert before he even meets and gets to know him. While in “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the grandmother is ignorant of her surroundings while being oblivious to her own flaws. Both stories demonstrate the overcoming of blindness through prejudice and vanity to end up seeing something greater than themselves through the use of characterization, symbolism, and epiphanies. In “Cathedral,” the narrator’s wife invites her blind friend, Robert, to stay in their home
Blindness applies as both a physical and mental ailment. Raymond Carver portrays this concept to readers with his short story, Cathedral. Told from the point of view of a nameless narrator, Cathedral tells a tale of healing mental blindness and, ultimately, curing one’s ignorance. As the nameless narrator encounters Robert, a blind friend of his wife, he changes from a man with a nearsighted mentality to an aware, empathetic human being. The traits, psyche, and point of view of the narrator of Raymond Carver’s Cathedral each drive the plot toward a theme of healing and transformation.
Midterm english essay Throughout the short story Cathedral by Raymond Carver you are made to think the narrator has changed. You see him get drunk and high with a blind man. Regardless of the momentary illusion of change, the narrator simply reinforces his own patterns of drunken selfishness thus proving his state of nature.
Sight is a gift that people are given that an abundance of people takes for granted in countless ways. In the story “Cathedral”, written by Raymond Carver, readers are introduced to a modern story on people realizing the truth behind the art of not seeing. He uses intense and lyrical descriptions on both sides of being blind and seeing through someone who cannot physically see. An abundance of people has found themselves under the ridicule of judging, and finding this unfortunate defect within someone’s unique genetic makeup to be a burden or even a curse from God. Within this story the main character learns to see without actually seeing with the help of his new-found friend Robert who teaches him new ways of looking upon his own life.
Even those of us with sight can be blind; and although it may not be physical, the blindness that is cognitive can be damaging to ourselves and our relationships with those around us. Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral” portrays a perfect example of this. In this story, Raymond Carver uses point of view to help emphasize the narrator’s initial bias for those who are visually impaired and to better convey how his (the narrator’s) negative opinions are altered throughout the story. “Cathedral” is a short story about a blind man who goes to visit an old friend after the death of his wife. The story is told from the perspective of said friend’s husband, who has significant ‘cognitive blindness.’
Thirdly , Hemingway's short story " A clean, Well-Lighted Place" and Carver's short story " Cathedral" can be compared with similar characteristics. These two stories show us how people now a day are ignorant and judge strangers without knowing them. In addition, ignorance is a big factor in the two stories because in Hemingway's story, the young waiter ignores and doesn’t understand the old man who wants to spend time at the cafe because he feels alone, but instead he tries shutting him down by going home early. However in Carver's story "Cathedral" the narrator who is ignorant and spends time in front of his television is very close-minded to new things and new people. Carver's ignorant character judges the blind man too fast because at
The narrator finally understands how Robert can love a woman or even just eat dinner being blind, since looking is not as important as he once thought. The townspeople were also just as wrong about Miss. Emily. When Emily dies, the townspeople are let into
This is where the epiphany starts to arise. Throughout the whole story, the author, Raymond Carver, gave an organizational structure of how the narrator’s views on the blind changed as the fiction progressed. He first viewed them as helpless beings. But once he heard the man’s wife died he felt pity for the blind man would have never known what she had looked like.
Robert literally can’t see, but he does obtain vision only on a deeper level. The narrator isn’t too enamored with the idea of another man coming to his home. He is insensitive and makes some harsh comments that make Robert feel a little uncomfortable. Due to his callous and unsympathetic personality, the narrator is never able to connect with his wife while Robert is instantly able to. Robert comes to visit the narrator and his wife at their home for the first time.
In Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral,” written in 1983, the author points out that empathy and perspective are the only way to truly experience profound emotion. The narrator is struggling is sucked into his own comfort zone, he drowns his dissatisfaction on life, marriage, and job in alcohol. A man of limited awareness breaks through his limitations by socializing with a blind man. Despite Roberts physical limitations, he is the one who saved narrator from himself and helped him to find the ones vies of the world.
In the story, the narrator’s narrow mindset is challenged over and over again as Robert breaks most stereotypes that the narrator held. As these stereotypes are broken, the narrator begins to feel more comfortable with Robert, and sincerely tells him that he is “glad for the company”. This release from prejudice culminates in the cathedral drawing scene of the story, where the narrator finally lets go of his bias towards blind people. Once the narrator closes his eyes, he is seemingly equal to Robert, and he consequently begins to understand Robert’s perspective. His newfound empathy towards Robert demonstrates how he has lost his prejudice towards him.
Throughout the story the reader can affirm that the wife has a deep, strong relationship with the blind man. The wife and the blind man share an intimate and vulnerable moments together; one includes when she lets him touch her face so he can remember her. Similarly, the narrator gets to share an intimate moment with Robert that leads to an epiphany. The epiphany that the narrator experiences when drawing a cathedral refers to seeing life from Robert, the blind man’s, point of view and seeing the struggles as well as life experiences a blind man must encounter on a daily basis.
In the works of Literature an epiphany is “a moment of profound insight or revelation by which a character’s life is greatly altered” (24). In the short story “Cathedral” Raymond Carver uses epiphany to draw on the theme, blinded views can alter someone’s behavior. On the realistic level, epiphany advances the plot and character development because they are the basis for the story’s central action. They also help define the narrator and play a vital part in revealing the story’s theme. The following changes in the character’s views have shown an evident development.
In his contemporary short story, “Cathedral,” Raymond Carver tells the story of an unnamed narrator, his wife, and an old friend, a blind man named Robert. Robert has come to visit the narrator’s wife, who is quite excited to see this man whom she hasn’t seen in ten years, yet the same can’t be said of the narrator who is noticeably and vocally uncomfortable about his visit. The story is told through the narrator’s first person point of view, showcasing his thoughts and the events that take place when Robert comes to visit. Carver highlights the theme of having the ability to see, but not truly seeing, through his use of colloquial language, and creation of relatable characters. “Cathedral” begins with the narrator informing the audience