Point of View to Enable the Story to Be Experienced in Cathedral

In Raymond Carver's "Cathedral," the husband's view of blind men is changed when he encounters his wife's long time friend, Robert. His narrow minded views and prejudice thoughts of one stereotype are altered by a single experience he has with Robert. The husband is changed when he thinks he personally sees the blind man's world. Somehow, the blind man breaks through all of the husband's jealousy, incompetence for discernment, and prejudgments in a single moment of understanding.

The idea of blindness in Carver’s Cathedral gains additional meaning throughout the story as we learn more about the character Robert and the blind man himself. The story begins in first person, depicting Roberts disdain for the blind and his smallness of character. As a juxtaposition we are introduced to the blind man who is evolved in character, and has a substantially important relationship with Roberts’s wife. As the story progresses and Robert has more interaction with the blind man, he himself begins to evolve through time spent while his wife is asleep. As the story comes to an end, the blind man has affected the character of Robert to the point that his inward blindness has been exposed. This story shows that blindness does not necessarily

The husband in Raymond Carvers “Cathedral” wasn’t enthusiastic about his wife’s old friend, whom was a blind man coming over to spend the night with them. His wife had kept in touch with the blind man since she worked for him in Seattle years ago. He didn’t know the blind man; he only heard tapes and stories about him. The man being blind bothered him, “My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to. (Carver 137)” The husband doesn’t suspect his ideas of blind people to be anything else. The husband is already judging what the blind man will be like without even getting to actually

Lives are diverse. Every being that passes by on the street, at school, at work, anywhere lives a completely unique life different from any other individual. Each person that one could meet has attended different schools, travelled to different places, and lived under different circumstances; they all pass by in an instant without a second thought or even a passing glance. These several diverse experiences sculpt diverse individuals with diverse thoughts, opinions, dreams, and motives. However, in Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral,” the narrator must converse with an individual that lives an extremely dissimilar life from his own. A blind man, friends with the narrator’s wife and a recent widower, has come to live with the narrator for a while. This sudden change in the narrator’s life does not come easy because of his inherent arrogance and prejudice. Nevertheless, the blind man remains polite and shows the narrator how similar, yet still different their lives are through example as well as an explicit exercise where he holds the narrator’s hands while he draws a cathedral in order to “see” what the cathedral looks like. To assist the reader in fully grasping the impact of this breakthrough in the narrator’s life regarding perspective and various types of human realities, Carver employs a large number of stylistic elements to enhance his writing.

Faulkner’s use of southern gothic writing style helps the reader build a mental depiction of Miss Emily. When the town sent their ambassadors to discuss the taxes that were owed, Faulkner described Miss Emily as “bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water” (2182). This description gives the reader the sense that the character is not well. Faulkner’s description that Miss Emily looked bloated achieves the desired effect on the reader to show how hideous she appears. This graphic description, combined with the author’s depressing description of the parlor (2182), makes the reader think of death. The reader gets the sense of being in a funeral parlor which helps to strengthen Faulkner’s narrative.

In his short story “Cathedral” Raymond Carver uses a unnamed narrator to tell his story in a first person point of view. Other than his name we get to know that he has a wife who's blind friend's, Robert, wife just passed away and he is visiting her family in Connecticut. During Roberts stay in Connecticut he will be staying at their house. While the man was able to see perfectly from his eyes he wasn't able to see his surroundings and others feelings. On the other hand Robert was lacking eye sight but was able to understand people very well. The narrator feels bad for Robert because he has never seen his wife, but the truth is he saw and understood her in his own way. Sometimes we can see someone but can't really see what they are feeling or trying to say.

Carver uses point of view, characterization, and conflict to establish the tone. The story’s point of view is first person. The point of view contributes to the reader’s ability to engage with the story, but it is also biased. However, aside from the pros and cons of the first person point of view, it allows the reader to understand why the narrator has certain ideas about blindness, or disability in general. He got most of his ideas from movies, but also from never meeting someone who is blind. When the readers understand the narrator, they are able to comprehend Carver’s changing

Carver develops the two main characters in his story to be completely contrasted to each other, in these characters not only does sight and blindness become conflicted with each other but also does the issue of knowledge. Carver uses the narrator to represent an individual who sees but cannot ?see? and Robert as one who can ?see? but lacks the ability to see. Through the interaction between them, Carver address societies misconception of vision and its connection with knowledge. He brings to the foreground the idea of sight being the handicap rather then blindness. This is illustrated through the narrator?s inability to understand his wife and her ?poems? and Roberts ability to do so. Robert?s attitude of ?learning never ends? and his ability to fearlessly experience new things such as ?dope? and gain new knowledge regardless of his ?disability? shows that he is not the one that is disabled (727). Rather it is the hesitance of the narrator that is the handicap and barrier that initially lies between them.

Raymond Carver’s short story Cathedral shows how Robert, who was a blind man decided to visit a old friend who was a woman. This woman had a husband who was not to open to having someone physical unable to see in his house. Early on the husband was very stereotypical toward Robert, until there were watching a television show about the cathedral. Being that Robert, could not see, he asked the husband to describe the cathedral to him, but he could not find words to describe it, so the husband drew the cathedral. After drawing the cathedral the husband realized that there is not much difference between him Robert. Raymond Carver uses conflict, characterization, and irony to show the difference between looking and seeing.

What does it means to “see”? Seeing is the capacity to observe the things around us with your eyes. In Raymond Carver’s story “Cathedral”, it for told the meeting between an initially self-absorbed narrator and an open-minded visually impaired man, Robert. As this short story unfolds, it becomes obvious that the narrator and Robert need each other in hopes to grow and gain a fresh perspectives. The narrator is completely capable of seeing as a result he began to assume that he was superior to Robert. Robert’s disability makes him unable to fully satisfied a woman, let alone live any sort of normal life. The narrator is absolutely sure that his capacity to see is significant. He puts little effort into seeing anything pass the exterior. This shows that, he doesn’t understand his wife very well and they fight a lot. Robert, nevertheless, has the talent to “see” on a much deeper level. This also shows that, Carver interact with his audiences by implanting the reader into the story, through his use of limits and dynamic narrational perspective. He explores the subject of amazing quality through his utilization of tone, setting, symbolism, and character growth in order to depict the husband's climactic illumination. In conclusion, to see is to have the capacity to see the things around us while setting aside assumptions or dread about these objects or individuals. The narrator realizes what it meant to “see”

Raymond’s Carver is an American writer that wrote the short story, “Cathedral,” that displays a first person point of view narration in which the narrator fundamentally transforms and is enlightened with a self-realization. The story emphasis changes in tone of the narrator as being jealous, judgmental, and insulting in which he eventually over comes to have a brighter understanding. The story begins with the feeling of apprehension of the gathering of his wife’s friend Robert who is legally blind. The narrator feels threatened and has his own negative perceptions about the blind man. The narrator seems to struggle with opening up and adapting to people and new experiences. Also, through out the story he struggles with emotions and feelings

He takes the story back and forth in time. He gives hints as to what the conclusion will be. When Faulkner is ending the story he takes the story back to the beginning and all the clues make sense. Miss Emily was insane. Her father was the only person she had. When he died, she could not let him go. When she met Homer she could not live without him. When she knew he would not marry her, she poisoned him to keep him forever. Faulkner writes that as soon as Miss Emily was buried, the people broke down the upstairs floor and discovered the items Miss Emily had purchased for Homer and his decaying corpse laying in the bed. What was more disturbing is that the pillow next to him had an indentation of a head and when they took a closer look they discovered long strands of salt and pepper hair, of Miss Emily’s hair. So it seems that sometimes peoples curiosity and suspicions can at times be

William Faulkner used the narrator as an almost omniscient voice, for the narrator knows what everyone else in the town has seen and thought about Emily; however, Faulkner keeps Emily’s thoughts private in order to preserve her enigmatic character. Another benefit provided to the narrator was the fact that he/she was not given a gender or set identity. “Then some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people. The men did not want to interfere…” (224) By keeping the narrator unclassified, Faulkner was able to incorporate the narrator with

To begin, when the narrator puts himself into the shoes of the blind man, only then can he gain insight into reality. The narrator, who remains nameless, is presented with a dilemma at the beginning of this short story. He is forced to invite a blind man named Robert, whom he’s never met before, into his home and make this man feel as comfortable as possible. From the very beginning, Carver made the narrator’s feelings about the blind man, Robert, crystal clear. The narrator made rude and inappropriate remarks, throughout the evening, in response to the fact that he does not know how to speak and act when in the presence of a blind man. This is because the narrator had gathered a picture of Robert in his head, thinking he was a cliché blind man. (Carver). Even once he met Robert, those

At the start of the story, Carver begins by informing the reader of the hostility the narrator holds for the character, Robert. He initially shows the preexisting beliefs the narrator has for the blind man, as stated in Carver’s “Cathedral”, “And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movies.” (32). The narrator has developed judgements upon other people based on their conditions, and physical appearances, and opinions of others, which “is salient in Carver’s writing because characters are typically minimally described”(1), according to Sara Kornfeld Simpson’s “Alcohol, Emotion, and Tension in Raymond Carver’s Fiction”. The assumptions Carver illustrates for the narrator are derived from ignorance and close mindedness he demonstrates towards the antagonist, Robert and the narrator’s wife. In addition, the narrator is described as being envious of the blind man and his wife’s past and current relations and communication with each other. Carver makes clear of how the contrasting personalities between the protagonist and antagonist are in regard for their fight for the love of the same woman, which alludes to an external conflict. Therefore, the narrator’s mistreatment towards the antagonist roots from insensitivity towards his blindness and his insecurity regarding his relationship with his wife.