The short stories “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver and “Big Jesse, Little Jesse” by Oscar Casares tell the narratives of two men as they navigate their internal biases toward people with disabilities. In “Cathedral,” the narrator makes his prejudice clear towards the blind man, Robert, before finding a deeper connection and learning to be more open-minded. In “Big Jesse, Little Jesse,” the central character, Jesse, struggles with the disconnect in his relationship with his son as a result of his flawed perception of and fixation on Little Jesse’s physical disability. Ultimately, the authors of these stories examine how pervasive stereotypes and shallow judgments and emotions enforce the alienation and internalization of otherness between human …show more content…
For instance, he internally expresses his contempt for Robert because his “idea of blindness came from the movies” where they “moved slowly and never laughed” (Carver 210). Since he never interacts with blind people and the media illustrates them poorly, that’s just how the narrator accepts them. It’s clear that when negative generalizations go unacknowledged, they can have a real influence over people’s perspectives. Similarly, in “Big Jesse, Little Jesse,” the father’s hidden thoughts and actions reflect his inability to accept his son’s disability because of social stigma. Although he “tells himself it’s not the end of the world,” he’s unable to shake his internal conflict of desperately wanting “him to be strong” and “normal” (Casares 91, 103). Even though he experiences firsthand how capable Little Jesse is, he can’t help but let it sway his perception because society and the people around him have enforced the idea that his kid is abnormal and inferior to others. Additionally, however, these stories contrast in revealing how different levels of intimacy in relationships can shape motivations for these