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Raymond Carver Cathedral Essay

2201 Words9 Pages

In the short story Cathedral by Raymond Carver, the symbolism shown throughout is looking beneath the surface and empathizing with others because you do not know what they might be dealing with. The symbolism in Raymond Carver's Cathedral is mainly around having a true sight or a good outlook and not judging people. There is a sense of irony that comes with the symbolism of “Cathedral” due to the symbolic meaning of true sight and not judging people for their outward appearance or circumstances due to the antagonist being a blind man. Author Raymond Carver was born in the beautiful city of Clatskanie, Oregon, in the year 1938. He grew up and attended Chico State College, which is where he fell in love with literature and writing. He accredited …show more content…

The second part of the sentence “Fact was, I wished he had a pair” (Carver 216) is a way that the author reveals that the man might have been uncomfortable with how he looked without his glasses on, and it is shown later in the story. “At first glance, his eyes looked like anyone else’s eyes. But if you looked close, there was something different about them. Too much white in the iris, for one thing, and the pupils seemed to move around in the sockets without his knowing it or being able to stop it. Creepy” (Carver 216). This large piece of text is another way that the author, Raymond Carver, demonstrates why the man was uncomfortable with the blind man. It illustrates that there were more factors that caused the man's resentment towards the blind man than just his wife’s past relationship with him. It also helps the reader understand why the man did not like him and really helps pound the symbolic meaning of not judging based on appearance, getting to really know the person, and having true sight in all …show more content…

Go on, now on. Keep it up” (Carver 227). The symbolic meaning of these sentences is really what the whole story is about. These sentences show that diving into something can lead to doing things that a person never thought they would ever do. It shows that by giving everything and everyone a chance, good things can happen. These sentences add to the symbolic meaning of not judging and having an open mind towards people, as in the case of these few lines of the story, drawing a cathedral with a blind man. This part of the story really resonates in the reader's mind with the overall symbolic meaning of not judging something without doing a deep dive into the subject. An accredited author said, “With this effort, the narrator appears to experience an internal change." This is an incredibly fair statement based on the events that happened in the lines above. It shows just how much can change when someone takes a chance and decides not to judge someone or something before completely understanding the person or activity. All of the quotes that have been presented from the story Cathedral by Raymond Carver all point towards the same symbolic

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