Comparing Cathedral And Araby

Cathedral by Raymond Carver and Araby by James Joyce contain similarities and differences related to their motifs and Epiphanies. Although both stories encompass different story lines and different narration tones the motif of blindness is apparent and the true epiphanies of both stories are realized. Araby and Cathedral are told by two narrators of different ages. In Araby the story is told by a young boy that believes he is in love with a young girl and in Cathedral the story is told by a Adult male whose is married and is jealous of a blind man who has befriended his wife. The narrator’s tone throughout Cathedral reveals a feel of hostility towards Robert as well as apprehensiveness. Although Robert is the one that is blind the narrator

The blind man whose name is Robert has also recently lost his wife. The narrator seems jealous of the relationship between Robert and his wife, he isn’t interested in speaking to him and only joins in their conversation out of a sense of jealousy. The narrator even thinks his wife has told the Robert everything about their relationship even though he can’t confirm it. When Robert initially comes to visit the narrator and his wife at their home he doesn’t have the most welcoming attitude but as the story progresses the narrator attitude towards Robert changes. The narrator alludes to “not knowing much about the blind besides what he saw in movies” (Carver in Gardner, Lawn, Ridl, & Schakel, 2013, p.302). Despite his ignorance meeting Robert begins to positively impact the narrator at one point in the story he is quoted saying “he watches with admiration as Robert uses his knife and fork on a piece of meat” (Carver in Gardner, Lawn, Ridl, & Schakel, 2013, p.304). As the night progressed the wife left the two men alone and they eventually start watching a program on television about a cathedral. Not knowing what a cathedral looked like the husband suggests to Robert that they work together to draw a cathedral. While they drew together, the narrator with his eyes

In Araby the narrator is in love with the sister of his friend. For a while the young narrator stares through his window and admires the young girl, then one day she speaks to him (Joyce in Gardner, Lawn, Ridl, & Schakel, 2013, p.109) they finally share more than two words. She asks if he is going to the bazaar he replies yes and promises to bring her a gift. This event leads him to believe that they have a chance. The narrator then describes his “lack of focus at school” (Joyce in Gardner, Lawn, Ridl, & Schakel, 2013, p.110) leading up to the event. The epiphany is apparent when the young boy realizes that what he thought would be a date with the young girl actually isn’t one, and that bringing her a gift to win her over wasn’t going to happen. This striking realization creates a sudden sense of self-hatred and doubt. He says “saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity” (Joyce in Gardner, Lawn, Ridl, & Schakel, 2013, p.111) further helping us understand his discontent and dismay. At this time the narrator’s tone also changes, what was once so positive and optimistic has become negative and depressing. One could also assume that the epiphany relates more to the boys immaturity and age then the actual situation. For example the boy has never has any major interaction with the young lady before nor had she every made any gesture towards him. For him to think