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Cathedral & Shiloh Essay example

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Cathedral & Shiloh

Analysing friction stories can lead to many conclusion by how the reader is

taking thoughts from it. In this class, we have read many stories that have focused on

many thoughts. We had stories that were focused on women's thinking, their speech and

how they deal with their beloved ones. We also had stories giving details on wars, love,

religion, and one of the most common topic - gender. The two stories being discussed in

here are Shiloh by Mason and Cathedral by Carver. These two stories have few things in common that can be described in a way that

can tell us how the two men suffered throughout their lives on different aspects of their

lives; of their personality. Cathedral and …show more content…

Short story review says, "The narrator of the story, is something of

a bigot and a loner, insensitive and intolerant, and that their marriage is a strained one"

(Elliott, 1). This says it all on how their marriage was something where they lived

together under same house and that was the only thing they had. The husband does his

drinking and smoking and goes to sleep when the wife is in bed by the time when he's by

himself smoking.

Leroy's marriage was same one also, a strained one. At the end of the story Norma

Jean leaves Leroy, which seemed like it was going to happen because since he had been

staying home more often they were having issues. It seemed like they drew eachother

apart weather it was intentionally or accidently. Throught out the story Leroy is trying to

build a home for Norma Jean, which according to Champion says, "He relates the main

metaphor for rebuilding his marriage, building a house, with that for Norma Jean's desire

for independence, building her body" (1). At the end, they finally break up because it was

too much for both of them. They knew it had to happen one day because their marriage

was just as empty as couple in Cathedral.

Another change in these two men's lives that was common, I thought, was the

turning point of their lives. This turning point may be different in their lives but what the

importance is that how

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