What Is Raymond Carver's Response To Cathedral

Being blind manifest itself in a lot of ways. The most harmful type of this condition may be figurative blindness of one’s own situations and ignorance towards the feelings of others. Within Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral,” the narrator’s emotional and psychological blindness is at once obvious. The narrator faces many issues as well as the turn-around experienced at the culmination of the tale are the main ideas for the theme of this story; and these ideas aid the narrator in eventually develop the character transformation by simply regarding the literal blind man in a positive light.

Carver’s short story “Cathedral” is about a man and a woman who are married. The woman’s blind friend Robert, whose wife just died is coming to stay with them because he plans on visiting his dead wife’s relatives nearby. Robert knew the man’s wife because she worked for him one summer, reading to Robert. The wife and Robert stayed in touch over the years by sending tapes to each other, and letting each other know about what was going on in their lives. When the man hears Robert is coming over he makes idiotic comments about Robert’s wife and felt that Robert would be a burden on them because he is blind. The man and the woman proceed to argue over the situation. The wife tells her husband, “If you had a friend, any friend, and the friend came to visit, I’d make him feel comfortable” (Carver, “Cathedral” 34). The man responds to this by stating, “I don’t have any blind friends” (Carver, “Cathedral” 34). When Robert finally arrives, they converse, drink, and eat together. After, the wife goes upstairs, the man and Robert begin to smoke some weed together. While the wife was sleeping, they start watching TV together and talking. Robert asks the man to explain to him what a cathedral looks like because cathedrals came up on the TV. The man has trouble explaining it and cannot describe to Robert what a cathedral looks like. Then Robert asks the man to draw a cathedral with him. Robert request that the man close his eyes, and they begin to draw. This is where the story ends and it seems that this is when the man became aware of the difficult lives blind people live as he could not explain what a cathedral looked like, and he could not see his drawing.

The short story “Cathedral”, written by Raymond Carver is a story told by it’s protagonist ‘the narrator’ about an unusual encounter he had with a blind man named Robert. Robert was an old friend of the narrator’s wife whom she befriended while working for him many years ago. The narrator’s wife shows compassion towards Robert because his wife has recently passed away due to cancer. The narrator a man who keeps to himself, very unsocial, insecure and closed-minded is uncomfortable about the fact that his wife invited Robert to spend the night at their home because he doesn't know what to expect or how to act around someone who is blind or different from him in general. The first person perspective of the story emphasizes how the narrators feelings and views change from the beginning to the end of the

The story “Cathedral,” by American author Raymond Carver, examines the negative attitude the main character has about the visit of his wife’s friend. The narrator is jealous about the friendship of his wife and the blind man, which has last ten years. To the narrator the idea that a stranger is coming over to his house makes him feel uncomfortable. He does not like that his wife’s friend is blind, and he makes up scenarios in his mind about this man that he has not even met. The main setting of the story takes place at the main character’s house, where he lives with his wife. The story is told through the eyes of the narrator whose name is anonymous to the reader. The narrator, throughout the story, had the opportunity to know the blind man and interact with him. At the end he realized that the blind man is actually a very nice guy who he might also be able to build a friendship with.

Humans tend to take multiple aspects of life for granted such as their five senses. Many people use their two eyes every day to look at the world around them, but they do not see all of the life around them. Some people take the same flight of stairs everyday at their workplace or school campus for years on end, but if one asked them how many steps the staircase held then they would more than likely draw a blank. This staircase example represents the difference between looking and seeing. Looking requires the physical act of utilizing the eyes, but seeing requires a deeper level of thinking only accessed through one’s brain. Throughout “Cathedral”, Raymond Carver uses the point of view, the characters, and the symbols to show the theme of

In Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” the narrator is seen to show ignorance and bias towards blindness throughout the story, however towards the end he realizes his flaws and the difference between looking and seeing. From the beginning of the story to the end you can see a change within the narrator after his encounter with the blind man. At the end of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” the narrator hopes to accomplish a change in his understanding of himself, and his experience with Robert flickers this change towards the end of the story.

Literacy Analysis of Cathedral In “Cathedral”, Raymond Carver writes a story where a man is upset about the arrival of his wife’s friend, simply because he is blind. The reader see the man’s reaction toward blind people and that causes him to consider what he is missing in his life. The primary focus is fear and dislike towards the Blind Man.

Cathedral is a short story written by Raymond Carver in 1983, about a prejudiced man who meets a disabled man. Through “Cathedral,” it becomes clear that the visit of the blind man Robert in the narrator’s house may change the narrator from stereotyping to accepting disabled people; this illustrates Carver’s theme which displays human insensitivity through the narrator’s reluctance because of fear, then acceptance, and finally understanding of Robert.

“Cathedral” is a short story written by Raymond Carver, published in 1981. The story is told in the first-person by a man referred to as “Bub.” Bub lives with his wife, who remains unnamed. The premise to the plot of the story is that Robert, a blind man who is friends with Bub’s wife, is coming to visit Bub’s home after his own wife dies. The reader follows Bub’s perspective throughout the experience and is privy to his thoughts and commentary. According to Carver, “Cathedral” differs from his other stories. Carver describes this difference in Fires, “[It] was totally different in conception and execution from any stories that [had] come before. There was an opening up when I wrote the story. I knew I’d gone as far the other way as I could or wanted to go, cutting everything down to the marrow, not just to the bone. Any farther in that direction and I’d be at a dead end” (204). A critic writes, “Carver's figures seal themselves off from their worlds, walling out the threatening forces in their lives even as they wall themselves in, retreating destructively into the claustrophobic inner enclosures of self. In Cathedral, and in Cathedral only, we witness the rare moments of their comings out, a process of opening up in closed-down lives” (Nesset 166). This moment of coming out occurs at the end of the story, and is representative of the culmination of Bub’s development process, which is personal enlightenment. In “Cathedral,” Carver includes five key ideas which convey the message that by focusing on and dealing with problems, reserving judgement, breaking stereotypes, and being open-minded, a person may find themselves confronted with the opportunity of being enlightened, which in Bub’s case, was the experience of a perspective change.

Raymond Carver’s short-story Cathedral is outwardly about a pessimistic man, whose wife’s blind visitor named Robert changes the narrators predisposing perception of the world and awakes a new view on life in the process. But inwardly, the story is about the desperate need for connection between these three characters, which isn’t feasible do to the emotional-detachment by the narrator. In the beginning, the narrator is hindered by his prejudices which doesn 't allow him connect to anything greater than himself. But with the help of the blind man who is able to see the greater truth, since he’s incapable of having his perception distorted based on outer appearance; allows him to teach the narrator the difference between looking and seeing. Carver is proclaiming that when we open ourselves to new ways of connecting with others, and new ways of viewing at the world, we can have hugely rewarding experiences.

“Cathedral” written by Raymond Carver is a short story that unfolds as a first-person narrative of the main character named Bub. The story beautifully depicts the process of an individual who transforms from a person with lack of knowledge and ignorant towards knowledgeable soul, due to an encounter with his wife’s blind friend Robert, to an individual that is enlightened. The cathedral, in this story, is a mere subject brought up at the end of this story which becomes the object of Bub's enlightenment. “Cathedral,” tells a tale of Bub who through a blind man receives an eye-opening experience. The narrator starts off as intolerable, but towards the end of the story, with the assistance of a blind man makes him open-minded. Bub is clobbered and drives him to the epiphany of, how he views Robert mirrors how views his life. His epiphany is shown through the author's by the narrator’s jealousy, the consumption of alcohol, food, cannabis, and Bub’s wife falling asleep; which shows the narrator’s preconceived notations, the connection formed between Bub and Robert, and how out of obliviousness Bub gained insight.

The Story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver is about true blindness and the effects of emotional contact. Peterson studies the use of determiners, a and the, that refer to the blind man in the story and its effects to establish the atmosphere of the story. He states that the change in determiner seems subtle, but these subtle changes are significant because the changes show how narrator feel about Robert throughout the story. Nesset studies the sexual polices and the love lives in several Carver’s stories. He discusses how Carver wrote his stories based on less of love and more of love withdrawal. Also Facknitz addresses rediscovery of human worth and the effects of emotional touch by discussing three short stories written by Carver. He analyses each narration of the narrator and comments based on psychological manner. The story “Cathedral” suggests the meaning of true blindness does not only refer to physical disability; it refers to those people who cannot see the world from other’s perspectives and it can be overcome through emotional contact.

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.

By the end of Raymond Carver's "Cathedral," the narrator is a round character because he undergoes development. The story opens with the narrator's unconcern for meeting the blind man, Robert, which is because he was uninvolved in the friendship between the blind man and the narrator's wife. Feeling intimidated, he discloses, "I wasn't enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me" (Carver 1). This emphasizes the narrator's unwillingness to bond with the blind man, which is made visible as the story progresses; moreover, he does not acknowledge their relationship. This is highlighted when he mentions what the name of the blind man's wife was. "Her name was Beulah. Beulah! That's a name for a colored woman. 'Was his wife a Negro?' I asked" (3). He seems disgusted with people. The insensitive narrator's prejudice is evident by him saying, "I've never met, or personally known, anyone who was blind" (5). This statement causes the audience to expect growth in him. The narrator's detachment from the blind man is indicated by his disinterest in cathedrals and tapes; nevertheless, the blind man and the narrator have had dinner, "smoked dope," and drank together,

Raymond Carver 's short story, "Cathedral," portrays a story in which many in today 's society can relate. We are introduced from the first sentence of the story to a man that seems to be perturbed and agitated. As readers, we are initially unsure to the reasoning 's behind the man 's discomfort. The man, who seems to be a direct portrayal of Raymond Carver himself, shows his ignorance by stereotyping a blind man by the name of Robert, who has come to stay with he and his wife. From the very beginning, Carver shows his detest for Robert but over the course of the story eases into comfort with him and in the end is taught a lesson from the very one he despised.