The Only Blind Man In Raymond Carver's Cathedral
Robert, the main character in Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral”, is the only blind man in the story. He is a caring, amiable man who even sets the narrator at ease. Robert visits the narrator’s wife after his own wife, Beulah, dies. He and the narrator’s wife have been listening to each other through the audiotapes they send back and forth during the past ten years. The narrator’s wife has recorded what she experiences including her marriage, suicide attempt, and divorce. She sent the tapes to Robert, who has responds in return. He is the person the narrator’s wife would find when she really needed a talk, and gives an epiphany to the narrator at the end of the story; he encourages the narrator to draw the cathedral, which the narrator cannot describe in words. Robert is an insightful, compassionate man who takes time to truly listen to others, this helps the narrator to “see” the cathedral better than only with his eyes.
Robert is a lenient and easygoing person. Even though the narrator shows his unpleasant feelings about his visit, Robert turned the contradiction to ease at last. Initially, Robert is a mysterious person to the narrator; the narrator has no idea about a blind man, and he has been lurking in the background of his wife’s life. He also touched his wife’s face when she worked for him at the past. After that, Robert married the next woman who worked for him. To sum up all the things that the narrator knows, Robert
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The important thing about Robert is not his blindness, but rather that he is a person who lives with what he has to make the best life that he can for himself. Although Robert has a harsh and extraordinary life, he can still be tough enough to face every challenge in his life. Even though Robert gives the epiphany to the narrator, he is not a magician or a wizard in any way, but the impact of this interaction for the narrator is almost
Compare And Contrast Cathedral And A Good Man Is Hard To Find
1375 Words | 6 PagesThe 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).
Response To Raymond Carver's Cathedral
431 Words | 2 PagesThe author use of the title “Cathedral” was misleading at first. “Cathedral” is about a husband who had an interesting experience with his wife’s blind friend. The narrator, also known as the husband, had difficulty understanding other people thoughts and personal feelings. The narrator knew how important the blind man is to his wife, yet he still makes careless jokes about him. “Maybe I could take him bowling” was a comment made by the narrator after finding out that the blind man was staying over his house.
Use Of Metaphors In Raymond Carver's Cathedral
978 Words | 4 PagesThe narrator he is a portrait of a middle class man living paycheck to paycheck who must face the darkness in his life unlike the blind man .The Two characters both feel some sort of loneliness throughout the story, that’s why the narrator's wife invited the blind man over for dinner .The narrator isn't self aware enough to admit his longing for himself or being alone, but Robert tells him to realize that he is lacking for company. Both men start to warm up to each other and talk about their problems after
The Nature Of Blindness In Raymond Carver's Cathedral
607 Words | 3 PagesAs Robert attempts to get to know the narrator, the narrator details, "Did I like my work? (I didn't) Was I going to stay with it? (What were the options?)" (37).
A Rose For Emily And Cathedral Analysis
1268 Words | 6 PagesHe 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.
Intellectual Blindness In Raymond Carver's Cathedral
1261 Words | 6 PagesAfter experiencing this moment with Robert, the narrator has the option of opening his eyes once he is done with the drawing, “But I had my eyes closed. I thought I’d keep them that way for a little longer. I thought it was something I ought to do” (7). Although the narrator has the option to open his eyes, his transformation begins to occur when he decides to keep his eyes closed in order to experience this intellectual awakening that is occurring. He finally begins to see the importance of these emotional connections, that have been limiting him and have made him emotionally blind to what he can truly experience by opening himself up.
Analysis Of Raymond Carver's Cathedral
865 Words | 4 PagesIn the world of literature, stories are often released for the purpose of social commentary or even to reflect on the authors past in a that its similar to an autobiography. Raymond Carver is a unique author often creating short stories that are of his own personal life through fictional characters that embody the turmoil he has gone through and social commentary on social issues. This is seen especially in his 1981 short story, Cathedral with a revised version being released in 1983, but we are gonna focus on the 1981 original. Cathedral’s plot centers around a blind man named Robert who after his wife dies, he lives with his departed wife’s friend who soon alongside her husband, helps teach Robert to learn a new way of seeing. The plot of the story while simple, is very complex under the surface, being a plot that is about three people who is dependent on each other and the connection that develops.
Theme Of Communication In Raymond Carver's Cathedral
1554 Words | 7 PagesIn the Raymond Carver stories “Cathedral” and “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” communication plays a major role in developing the story. In this essay I will analyze how the theme of communication plays both similar and different roles in developing the meaning of these two stories to further understand how communication effects the characters. Communication is an important part of the story to understand because it gives the reader a better understanding of the moral of the story as well as important life influences of the author. “Cathedral” and “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” are excellent to stories to compare their theme of communication because communication gives each story a unique meaning, but both stories use communication in different ways to do so. By exploring the different types of communication in these two stories it will be easier to understand the moral meaning of the stories but also how different types of communication can be more effective than verbal communication.
Ignorance And Preconceptions In Raymond Carver's Cathedral
448 Words | 2 PagesIn 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.
What Is The Theme Of Cathedral By Raymond Carver
1063 Words | 5 PagesRobert’s wife has recently died and he used to work for the narrator’s wife. Robert comes to visit the narrator’s home and the narrator is not happy about this because he believes blind people to be miserable and gloomy based solely on what he has absorbed from the movies. At the end of the first paragraph, he says, “A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (1.1). Little to the narrator’s knowledge, his wife and Robert had been using audio tape to correspond over ten years, and have much past history with each other. The narrator’s wife makes sure he knows to make Robert comfortable, and if he doesn’t it shows that he does not love her.
The Narcissistic Narrator In Raymond Carver's Cathedral
910 Words | 4 Pages“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.
Prejudice In Raymond Carver's Cathedral
727 Words | 3 PagesAfter a small introduction when the two characters first meet, the narrator recognizes that he “didn’t know what else to say” (Carver, 4), signifying his inability in connecting with Robert. A reason behind the trouble in connecting is discussed in “Literary Analysis of Cathedral” by Niwar A. Obaid, where he writes “The narrator’s apparently judgmental and doubtful tone… [set] a difficult attitude once the blind man and the narrator actually meet”. Obaid lists the narrator’s tone as one of the primary reasons why the narrator is reluctant to get to know Robert better. Since the narrator’s tone is caused by his prejudices, as previously shown, one can infer from Obaid’s writing that the real reason behind the narrator’s reluctance to form a relationship is his prejudice against the blind. Later in the story, Carver juxtaposes Robert’s readiness to learn more about the narrator to the narrator’s initial refusal to develop a relationship to Robert.
Internal Conflict In Cathedral By Raymond Carver
1522 Words | 7 PagesIn “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, the narrator struggles with an internal conflict that involves him never being able to be in a vulnerable or sensitive state, especially when he is with his wife. The narrator creates suspense by having the reader wait until the end to realize what the blind man was referring to when he states, “From all you’ve said about him, I can only conclude—” (Carver 35). The reader can observe that the blind man was explaining that the husband was missing out on all aspects of life and the little things the world has to offer. The husband was so closed-minded, that he was missing out on having a deeper connection with his wife.
The Theme Of Epiphany In Raymond Carver's Cathedral
860 Words | 4 PagesThe narrator begins to change as Robert taught him to see beyond the surface of looking. The narrator feels enlightened and opens up to a new world of vision and imagination. This brief experience has a long lasting effect on the narrator. Being able to shut out everything around us allows an individual the ability to become focused on their relationships, intrapersonal well-being, and
The Cause Of Conflict In Raymond Carver's Cathedral
1358 Words | 6 PagesNarrated in the first person, Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” is bound to unfold due to the thoughts and feelings of one of the main characters, the husband. Expectedly, the conflict revolves around him and the way he responds to the conflict leads
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