The Typical Satire In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

The renowned author, Raymond Carver, utilizes dramatic and situational irony throughout his short stories, Cathedral, Neighbors, and They’re not your husband. Carver is well known for using different types of irony to allure the reader. In Cathedral, and They 're not your husband situational irony is amply evident. Situational irony is when the opposite of what is expected to happen, occurs. However, in Neighbors, dramatic irony is prevalent.

Cathedral’s Narrator In Raymond Carver’s story, “Cathedral,” he touches on the dangers of stereotypes and the importance of real communication. This story is told through the eyes of a judgmental narrator, who is also a husband. Though his character may seem dull at the beginning, his role helps shape the meaning of the story and is an example of the different themes. The narrator gives the reader a look inside the effects of being closed off, not valuing communication, and being judgmental.

Renowned author, Raymond Carver, skillfully weaves dramatic and situational irony throughout his short stories, Cathedral, Neighbors, and They’re Not Your Husband. Situational irony is when the opposite of what is expected to happen, occurs. In Cathedral, and They 're Not Your Husband situational irony is amply evident. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something that the characters do not. In Neighbors and They’re Not Your Husband, dramatic and situational irony are both utilized.

Cathedral In the short story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, the main character which is the husband finds to let go of your own ideas of something to see the good in what you don’t like. In this short story it shows how a blind man sees things in a different light and is positive about it compared to the husband who had everything that the blind man doesn’t have. The author shows us that it’s important to view things in a different light and go out of our comfort zone to be able to see it differently. He also shows us that we can’t make judgements based on what our minds are thinking.

“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.

Written by Christopher Morley, “On Laziness” is an essay that describes Morley's argument on the common ideology of laziness. His purpose is to persuade readers that laziness is the root of success and that it is not necessarily a bad element in human nature. For example, Morley stated the following quote from paragraph 4, “The man who is really, thoroughly and philosophically slothful is the only thoroughly happy man. It is the happy man that benefits the world.”. This purpose is achieved by utilizing an indolent style of irony and satire, the use of historical examples is also a used.

Readers can understand the elements by reading what the narrator has to say about the blind man. He is always complaining about him before the blind man even gets to his house. The narrator in the beginning did not give the blind man a chance before he started judging him. In a world full of negative things, people should give each other a chance to get to know one

On the other hand, Judge Danforth is what we would see in justice and can be consider evil. Danforth is an aggressive man that has power and can be ignorant when taking decisions. Danforth will stick to what the books says while Hale resort to other ways to please and find internal peace. In the beginning of the book, both Danforth and Hale begin with almost identical mindsets. Reverend Hale ends up in an all time low, yet he is able to find who he truly is, while Danforth gets lost and loses his identity.

“I’m being ironic. Don’t interrupt a man in the midst of being ironic, it’s not polite…” - Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles. Irony is a crucial part of humor, suspense, and writing in general. Ray Bradbury valued irony in his writing, he used irony consistently in his stories and even wrote about irony. Bradbury uses irony in all of his stories in The Illustrated Man.

The unnamed narrator is self-assimilated, concerned just with how the visit from Robert will influence

"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.