More handpicked essays just for you.
Cathedral by raymond carver symbolism analysis
Cathedral by raymond carver symbolism analysis
Cathedral by raymond carver symbolism analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
When first reading the story the narrator comes across as someone with a not so pleasant attitude. The narrator's wife and an old friend or hers named Robert; who is blind, have been communicating with each other for the past ten years. It's pretty obvious that the narrator is jealous of Robert. This is part of why the narrator has issues with blind people. “My idea of blindness came from the movies.
Every so often a man experiences drastic changes in his body while being with his wife; his temperature rises, adrenaline increases, and his eyes dilate at the shock of what is happening. Indeed, this phenomena may mean several things some more pleasurable than others, but on occasion it is the actual state of anger and jealousy. In “Cathedral”, by Raymond Carver, the narrator is envious of the blind man, and is at the clemency of his emotions. However, as time passes the husband gradually overcomes his restless rage that blinds him, and becomes aware of the truth. This gradual transformation may be understood through the language and actions of the husband.
The unnamed narrator does not see Robert, the blind man, as a person, but as someone different. The grandmother, on the other hand, believes in her appearance and belief that is better than other people. After the challenges they both face, they end up finding enlightenment. In “Cathedral,” the narrator was not certain on how to describe the Cathedral to Robert. The narrator resorts to drawing and with a pen in his hand, he had realized that Robert “closed his hand over my hand” and asks the narrator to “close your eyes” as they drew the Cathedral (75-76).
In the story the narrator, who is also the husband, is very judgmental at first. He is this way because his wife's friend is coming to stay with them for a couple of days and her friend is a blind man named Robert. The husband never met this man, never the less a blind man. In the beginning he is stereotyping the blind man by saying, "My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind move slowly and never laughed" (Carver 456).
A Cathedral is a place for people to go and worship, to connect with God. By drawing the Cathedral the narrator is in some ways also making a connection. For the first time, he appears to be able to see. The narrator's ignorance and preconceptions fade away because he sees that although Robert has the gift of knowing and understanding people. There is also a sense of irony at the end of the story.
From that moment, the narrator show his true side to me. It shows that he doesn’t not care about his wife feeling toward the blind man. After carefully reading “cathedral”, the narrator is jealous of the blind man relationship with his
Robert loves his wife and views her as his soulmate rather than a body to fill empty space. Robert’s physical blindness does not hold him back from feeling, while the narrator’s emotional lack of sight proves more
Carver highlights the narrator’s prejudice in the opening section of the story in order to reveal how the narrator’s bias against blind people in general leads to a preconceived negative opinion on Robert. From the outset, the narrator acknowledges his prejudice by mentioning that his “idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed” (Carver, 1). The narrator’s negative prejudice is not caused by knowing a blind man; rather, it is derived from an external factor, demonstrating how the narrator has formulated an opinion on people he has never met. Consequently, the narrator assumes that Robert will conform to the negative stereotype present in his mind, and is unpleased about Robert’s visit.
Throughout the story the reader can affirm that the wife has a deep, strong relationship with the blind man. The wife and the blind man share an intimate and vulnerable moments together; one includes when she lets him touch her face so he can remember her. Similarly, the narrator gets to share an intimate moment with Robert that leads to an epiphany. The epiphany that the narrator experiences when drawing a cathedral refers to seeing life from Robert, the blind man’s, point of view and seeing the struggles as well as life experiences a blind man must encounter on a daily basis.
One of the biggest issues in the story that “fuels the narrator’s jealousy” (Cathedral) is the fact Robert had touched her face. Carver writes “So okay. I’m saying at the end of the summer she let the blind man run his hands over her face” (Carver 78). The way this sentenced is written makes it seem like the narrator is in some sort of disbelief that his wife let another man touch her face. It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal however since the man is blind, him be able to touch her face is in a way intimate.
With this, readers could sense that the narrator is jealous, grouchy, and angry that Robert’s presence affects the narrator’s wife because of the connection between both the wife and Robert. The author prepares readers for the enlightenment when Robert came for a visit and that is how cathedral came about. The narrator explains, “The TV showed this one cathedral” (110). In this scene, the narrator and Robert bonded about the appearance of the cathedral. Instantly, the narrator says to Robert, “Do you have any idea what a cathedral is?
Robert’s wife has recently died and he used to work for the narrator’s wife. Robert comes to visit the narrator’s home and the narrator is not happy about this because he believes blind people to be miserable and gloomy based solely on what he has absorbed from the movies. At the end of the first paragraph, he says, “A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (1.1). Little to the narrator’s knowledge, his wife and Robert had been using audio tape to correspond over ten years, and have much past history with each other. The narrator’s wife makes sure he knows to make Robert comfortable, and if he doesn’t it shows that he does not love her.
The Neolithic Revolution was the first cultivation of plants and domestication of animals. Neolithic Revolution means the development of the agriculture. With the emerge of agriculture, hunter-gatherers were changing their lifestyle, and they discovered the sedentary life. Hunther-gatherers began civilized with agriculture because they learned new skills, to grow their food and they began to tame animals. This changes brought good and bad things for human communities and environment such unbalanced the natural ecosystem.
Robert literally can’t see, but he does obtain vision only on a deeper level. The narrator isn’t too enamored with the idea of another man coming to his home. He is insensitive and makes some harsh comments that make Robert feel a little uncomfortable. Due to his callous and unsympathetic personality, the narrator is never able to connect with his wife while Robert is instantly able to. Robert comes to visit the narrator and his wife at their home for the first time.
Choosing a career path can be challenging for some individuals, but this is not always the case for others. As for me, it has always been clear the career field of my choice since I was very young. While I was growing up, I always knew that I was inclined in becoming a physician. One of my past times as a child was to pretend that I was a doctor. For instance, I used to operate on my toy soldiers and plush animals.
