The Theme Of Blindness In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

The narrator had never meet a blind person before and believed in the stereotypes. The narrator said “A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (Carver 331), in the last sentence of the first paragraph. For the narrator, there should be no problem letting a blind man into the house. Throughout this short story the husband continues to make short remarks to the old blind man, as well as keeping a routine for making comments to the blind man. For the reader it is really easy not to pay attention to the story and instantly get annoyed.

In Carver’s story, the narrator embodies that representation of society and his journey to illumination. However, as a society we resist change, much like the narrator who represents his early discontent with Robert who is an embodiment of everything he isn’t. As expressed in his quote “And his being blind bothered me… A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (Carver 265). Furthermore, Carver reflects on the false sources of knowledge and our feeble senses that we rely on to establish judgment.

In the novel “Cathedral” By Raymond Carver, many themes and motifs are subtlety hinted throughout, a major motif that stood out to me was the presence of sight throughout the story and what deeper meaning it has towards the characters. “Cathedral” is a short story about a dissatisfied man who timidly allows his wife’s old friend stay at their house after his wife passes away. The man’s name is Robert and he happens to be blind this unsettles the narrator because of his preconceived notions and expectations of what a blind person should be like. As the story goes on the reader realizes that maybe the narrator may be the one who actually cannot see the world around him, which leads to an Epiphany. Blindness is a dominant motif in this story, and it serves multiple metaphorical functions.

"My idea of blindness came from the movies… A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (261), a quote by Raymond Carver in his short story, “The Cathedral” about being judged before getting to know someone. A blind man, named Robert, got judged by the narrator, also known as Bub because he based Robert on the idea media placed on the blind during their time. The theme of this story does not always believe stereotypes are the way people truly are. The theme speaks to me because my younger brother, Andrew, has autism and he is constantly being judged and criticized for his behavior.

Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something that the characters do not. Dramatic and situational irony appear throughout a few of Carver’s numerous remarkable short stories. Cathedral by Raymond Carver is the story about a blind man, Robert, who visits a husband and wife in their home. One would expect the husband to be able to see more than the blind man, but ironically this is not the case. The husband who is also the narrator can physically see, but figuratively can not.

Robert. The story is about two blind men who have a different type of blindness - one is psychologically blind in the mind. The other is a physically blind and visually obstructed. The problem is that the narrator lacks communication with society and his wife and friends. He was ignorant and prejudiced around people with him because he never put his feet on another person's shoes.

A beard on a blind man! Too much, I say” (Carver, 4). In short, the Narrator is judging Richard based on his demeanor. Moreover, when his wife told him the name of Richard 's wife, Beulah, the primordial thought that came to mind was, “Her name was Beulah. Beulah!

An old friend of the narrator "Robert,'' is the blind man in the story. When the sighted man tries to explain what a cathedral is like to the blind man, his words fail. One man relies on vision to communicate, the other does not. It was like they spoke different languages. At the end of the story when the narrator says "My eyes were still closed.

The narrators in both “Araby” by James Joyce and “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver tell two different life stories about two unique journeys; however, they both experience epiphanies at the very end of their stories. “Araby” takes place in North Richmond Street—a run-down neighborhood in Dublin, Ireland where the main character—a teenage boy is living. He has a secret crush on a girl and tries to keep a precious promise to her about bringing her something from the bazaar. However, he arrives at the bazaar when almost every store is closed, and he leaves, feeling utterly disappointed and angry. On the other hand, in “Cathedral,” a blind man named Robert, with whom the narrator’s wife has a strong connection over ten years, comes to visit the narrator’s

Homer A. Barbee, a blind poet and storyteller, publically spoke to the people of the college, illustrating the life of the Founder. With his strong words and powerful imagery, Barbee makes the Invisible Man "see the vision" (133) and become completely oblivious to the fact that he is blind. I think that there is an interesting contrast in that Barbee is blind, yet he can "see" the God-like figure that the Founder is, while the Invisible Man, who can see, does not understand why Barbee praises him. Barbee's inability to see hinders his ability to be an precise judge of

The narrator 's epiphany at the end of "Cathedral" comes with his ability to 'see ' outside of himself, to imagine himself as part of something bigger. The irony is that he is taught to 'see ' by a blind man, and he 'sees ' only through refusing to open his eyes and behold the drawing he has made. The narrator 's attitudes about sight at the beginning of the story exhibit his close-mindedness: he judges Robert for blindness, even though he himself is 'blind ' to the truth of what blindness is (he admits he only knows it through TV). What he learns about sight is that it can be limiting when turned only to the particulars of one 's own life, instead of directed outwards to how we are all connected to

"Cathedral" a story about a man who is annoyed with his wife's old friend that is blind, but ends up teaching him a new way of viewing life. “Walk a mile in my shoes, see what I see, hear what I hear, feel what I feel, THEN maybe you'll understand why I do what I do, 'till then don’t judge me.” The advice to “walk a mile in someone else's shoes” means before judging someone, you must understand their challenges are in life and what they go though. This is clearly expressed in the story “Cathedral” by the narrator himself.