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Helen Keller Figurative Language

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Is a sense of sight required to see? Author and activist Helen Keller challenges orthodox perspectives in her letter “View From the Empire State Building” as she uses her imagination to describe vibrant scenery. Keller’s letter conveys her perspective of the Empire State Building to warrant a response from sighted individuals. By using her uncommon circumstances and an emotional approach, Keller is able to hone the reader’s perception of her point of view of the world throughout her letter to Dr. Finley. The letter begins with Keller’s description of sight without vision. Keller states, “I was so entranced ‘seeing’ that I did not think about sight” (p. 4). Despite not being able to understand vision, she is able to depict her awareness of her surroundings figurative language. Through her uncanny use of humor, the reader can understand that Keller shows her awareness by using the analogy of “sight” to describe her experience of blindness. The author shows awareness of her disability, but interprets it as a new perspective that can provide her with a keen imagination. …show more content…

In paragraph eight, the author’s perspective is able to go beyond what can physically be seen, yet continues to cater to sighted readers. “[...T]he sun and the stars are suburbs of New York [...] I had a sort of wild desire to invest in a bit of real estate on one of the planets” (p.8). She continues by making an analogy about owning a cottage on the Milky Way, yet being unable to incorporate herself. This may symbolize Keller’s struggles with her disabilities and how she feels it is important for her to be part of a community that is inclusive and her voice feels heard. By revealing her motive, Keller is able to establish further

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289 Words | 2 Pages

When someone people see blind people, they think that they can't do anything, but working together with those that can see, blind people can achieve amazing things. Helen Keller fights for the right of the blind and persuade the reader to help them. Through the use of persuasive language and grammar, she creates a persuasive essay to help the blind. Through the use of pathos, ethos and logos, Helen Keller makes her argument stronger and more believable. In the fourth paragraph she uses pathos “ blind men will not be content to be numbered amoung those who will not, or cannot, carry burden on sholder or tool in hand.

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1375 Words | 6 Pages

The narrator placed himself in Robert’s shoes and realized how inaccurate his perception about Robert was. By sketching a Cathedral, they were drawing a piece of art that represents a collaboration closer to sight. By sharing an intimate experience, Robert the physically blind man was able to help the unnamed narrator, metaphorically blinded prejudice man see his errors in his conscious and see things

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448 Words | 2 Pages

In Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral,” written in 1983, the author points out that empathy and perspective are the only way to truly experience profound emotion. The narrator is struggling is sucked into his own comfort zone, he drowns his dissatisfaction on life, marriage, and job in alcohol. A man of limited awareness breaks through his limitations by socializing with a blind man. Despite Roberts physical limitations, he is the one who saved narrator from himself and helped him to find the ones vies of the world.

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617 Words | 3 Pages

In the story “Cathedral” Carver uses a variety of elements to contribute to his story. When the story begins the narrator is trouble by the visitor due to the visitor’s disability. However, the narrator is rude and inconsiderate oftentimes making remarks about the blinds man disability to see. In this story I see that Carver uses the narrator’s prejudgments as a reflection of today’s society. As the story progresses, readers can start seeing the difference between looking and seeing, the potential for greatness and kindness in humanity, and how the cathedral drawn by both the narrator and Robert represents true sight.

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1094 Words | 5 Pages

He stared the pictures of cathedrals on the TV screen, but he still was unable to verbally or physically illustrate it. Robert detected this so he told the narrator to close his eyes. By keeping his eyes closed, the narrator was able to experience things as a blind man. At the

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1041 Words | 5 Pages

In the novel “Cathedral” By Raymond Carver, many themes and motifs are subtlety hinted throughout, a major motif that stood out to me was the presence of sight throughout the story and what deeper meaning it has towards the characters. “Cathedral” is a short story about a dissatisfied man who timidly allows his wife’s old friend stay at their house after his wife passes away. The man’s name is Robert and he happens to be blind this unsettles the narrator because of his preconceived notions and expectations of what a blind person should be like. As the story goes on the reader realizes that maybe the narrator may be the one who actually cannot see the world around him, which leads to an Epiphany. Blindness is a dominant motif in this story, and it serves multiple metaphorical functions.

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1522 Words | 7 Pages

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.

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444 Words | 2 Pages

All of our life we have grown used to seeing objects and the different queue’s (sounds, expressions, movements) that are incorporated with them. If we were to lose our vision we would be at quite a loss. We need vision to get around in life, because we have built up experiences throughout our lifetime with our vision. For the man that gained his vision, his forty-five years of existence have been without the ability to see and his experiences rely on this missing piece. When this missing piece suddenly becomes available it makes life more difficult because he knows the world without it.

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997 Words | 4 Pages

Hellen Keller once said that, “Although the worlds is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” In Hellen Keller’s autobiography, The Story of My Life, she wrote about her experiences with learning as a person who was both blind and deaf. In this passage taken from her book, she described her transformation from a child who fought fervently against learning, to an individual who yearned to understand and describe the world around her. Keller presented her shift in the passaged as one that altered her perspective of every aspect of her life, and awakened a sense of happiness and fulfillment within her. She portrayed this change through devices that allowed the reader to closely follow her experiences and understand the emotions that she carried with her

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196 Words | 1 Pages

Annie Dillard’s essay “Sight into Insight” emphasizes how one must live in the moment and not sway towards others opinions in order to gain accurate observations on a situation. She uses nature as a prominent theme in her essay to represent the thought of looking past the superficial obvious in order to go deeper to where the hidden beauty rests. Dillard wants the reader to realize in order to observe clearly you have to live in the moment and let go of the knowledge you think you know on the situation. Dillard uses the example of her “walking with a camera vs walking without one” (para.31) and how her own observations differed with each. When she walked with the camera she “read the light” (para.31), and when she didn’t “light printed” (para.31).

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860 Words | 4 Pages

“I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And being blind bothered me” (104) The narrator has no knowledge of experiencing seeing a blind person. “My idea of blindness came from the movies” (104).

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749 Words | 3 Pages

the enhancing of the other senses, using blindness to one’s benefit and even the ethical demeanor of an individual who is blind. “In the course of the many lectures-too many lectures-I have given, I’ve observed that people tend to prefer the personal to the general, the concrete to the abstract. I will begin, then, by referring to my own modest blindness. Modest, because it is total blindness in one eye, but only partial in the other.” (377)

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528 Words | 3 Pages

In his contemporary short story, “Cathedral,” Raymond Carver tells the story of an unnamed narrator, his wife, and an old friend, a blind man named Robert. Robert has come to visit the narrator’s wife, who is quite excited to see this man whom she hasn’t seen in ten years, yet the same can’t be said of the narrator who is noticeably and vocally uncomfortable about his visit. The story is told through the narrator’s first person point of view, showcasing his thoughts and the events that take place when Robert comes to visit. Carver highlights the theme of having the ability to see, but not truly seeing, through his use of colloquial language, and creation of relatable characters. “Cathedral” begins with the narrator informing the audience

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896 Words | 4 Pages

She explains that the blind man might have an insight into an image and see even beyond what the seeing man sees on the condition that the seeing man gives an ekphrasis to the blind. (Schmidt 2005). Imagination is stimulated by the words we hear and read, and here comes the significance of

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593 Words | 3 Pages

After drawing and trying to explain the architecture of a cathedral, the narrator beings to fully comprehend the struggles of Robert and the condition of being blind. " (...) I thought it was something I ought to do. (...) My eyes were still closed.

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