The Blind Man In Ralph Ellison's Cathedral

The unnamed narrator does not see Robert, the blind man, as a person, but as someone different. The grandmother, on the other hand, believes in her appearance and belief that is better than other people. After the challenges they both face, they end up finding enlightenment. In “Cathedral,” the narrator was not certain on how to describe the Cathedral to Robert. The narrator resorts to drawing and with a pen in his hand, he had realized that Robert “closed his hand over my hand” and asks the narrator to “close your eyes” as they drew the Cathedral (75-76).

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.

How would one feel if they knew that no matter what they did, they will never be recognized for what they are trying to accomplish? Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” discusses a part of his history where he thought he was making a difference in the world, but he was blinded by his innocence and naivete to the fact that he invisible to the white upper class, they don’t see the real him, all they see is a race that they can take advantage of. Invisibly and Blindness are both portrayed in “Battle Royal” through the specific examples like Ralph. Ralph is blind to the fact that the people that he is performing his speech for don’t particularly care about anything that he has to say. Throughout the entire story, he was only focused on if there was

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.’

But he narrates what he knows and feels, he also afraid about his wife connection to the blind man. The narrator also shows that he has a difficult time understanding the difference between sight and understanding. The author uses different patterns when he writes, one that it's fascinating is the narrator almost never mention the names of Robert, for example in the line “This blind man, an old friend of my wife’s, he was on his way to spend the night” (p.86). The narrator calls him ‘The Blind Man’ as if he did not know his name, but he did.

From that moment, the narrator show his true side to me. It shows that he doesn’t not care about his wife feeling toward the blind man. After carefully reading “cathedral”, the narrator is jealous of the blind man relationship with his

Love is blind. Some say this with a positive or negative connotation. Positive in the sense that it allows you to see past a person’s flaws; Negative in the sense it prevents you from seeing the person’s true colors. In many occasions, people are blinded in a negative way. The blindness causes one to create their own image of the other person, causing an unhealthy relationship to form.

The narrator’s eyes are closed and he is being led by a blind man, yet he is able to see. Carver never explains what it is the narrator sees, but there is the sense that he has found a connection and is no longer detached or isolated. The narrator is faced with a stark realization and glimmer of hope. Hope for new views, new life and probably even new identity. Even the narrator’s wife is surprised by the fact that her husband and Robert really get along together.

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.

Then, Robert comes to his house and they start to get along with each other. Later at night, the narrator and Robert are watching television show about cathedrals. While, they were watching the show Robert tells the narrator to get a piece of paper. Lastly, the narrator and Robert draw a picture of a cathedral together, so Robert can get a better idea of a cathedral. In the

The Dark-Lensed Glasses The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is full of symbols that represent the narrator’s struggle to live up to his identity. Ralph Ellison, out of the symbols in the novel, used a few very clever ones. The narrator at one point in the book buys some glasses and wears a hat. Although it may seem very normal, it is important because of his reasons.

Furthermore, the narrator is starting to realize that he enjoys Robert’s company as well as compelled to explore Robert’s eye sight limits, to help Robert visualize a cathedral. The narrator tries to describe a cathedral, but failed to do so, and retreats back into cynicism. The narrator’s response Robert’s question was, “the truth is, cathedrals don’t mean anything special to me. Nothing cathedrals.

“His being blind bothered me” (Carver 1). In Raymond Carver’s short story Cathedral, Carver establishes an ignorant narrator, who is dependent on alcohol and fixated upon physical appearance; he juxtaposes the narrator to a blind man who sees with his heart rather than his eyes. Through indirect characterization, Carver contrasts the narcissistic narrator to the intuitive blind man while utilizing sight as a symbol of emotional understanding. He establishes the difference between looking and seeing to prove that sight is more than physical.

He realizes how smart Robert is, and he keeps being shocked as the night goes on. While listening to a show about Cathedrals, Robert asks the narrator to describe him a Cathedral. The narrator tries his hardest, but can not do it. To combat this, Robert takes the narrator's hand and has him close his eyes and together they draw the church just from memory. After drawing the Cathedrals, the narrator describes the picture as, “ It’s really something” (103).He learns how seeing is not everything in life, and how wrong he was with his assumptions about Robert.