ipl-logo

Raymond Carver Cathedral Theme

1126 Words5 Pages

“Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy - in fact, they are almost incompatible; one emotion hardly leaves room for the other,” Robert A. Heinlein says., What most people do not account for is the acknowledgement of the fact that love and jealousy are both there at the same time. Within the short story, “Cathedral”, by Raymond Carver, Carver expresses the theme of how a character who feels an enormous amount of jealousy changes from an encounter throughout the story. The Narrator 's wife invites her old friend, a blind man, by the name of Robert to her home. This triggers an inner conflict within the Narrator. He feels …show more content…

Overtime, the Narrator begins to slowly acknowledge the blind man and understand how to interact with him. When the blind man asked the Narrator to describe the cathedral shown on television, he said, “To begin with, they’re very tall...They reach way up. Up and up. Toward the sky. They’re so big, some of them, they have to have these supports...These supports are called buttresses...remind of viaducts, for some reason...you don’t know viaducts, either? Sometimes the cathedrals have devils and such carved into the front. Sometimes lords and ladies. Don’t ask me why this is” (Carver, 11). After attempting to describe the cathedral, he realized he could not. He said,“but it looks like that’s the best I can do for you. I’m just no good at it” (Carver, 12). Later on, when Robert asks the Narrator to bring him a pen and paper and they drew the cathedral, the Narrator realized something very important. While, the Narrator can see with his eyes, the blind man can see the world through his mind. Richard said, “Go ahead, bub, draw...Draw. You’ll see. I’ll follow along with you. It’ll be okay. Just begin now like I’m telling you. You’ll see. Draw” (Carver, 12). When the Narrator tried to explain a cathedral, he could not, but with the blind man leading him, he could and when Robert told him to open his eyes to see what he drew, the Narrator decides to trust Robert in the end. The Narrator thought, “My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything” (Carver, 13). The Narrator felt as if he were a blind man too and he could see just like them. His trust and understanding of Robert grew in that

Show More
Related
1375 Words | 6 Pages

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).

Read More
448 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
431 Words | 2 Pages

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

Read More
910 Words | 4 Pages

“His being blind bothered me” (Carver 1). In Raymond Carver’s short story Cathedral, Carver establishes an ignorant narrator, who is dependent on alcohol and fixated upon physical appearance; he juxtaposes the narrator to a blind man who sees with his heart rather than his eyes. Through indirect characterization, Carver contrasts the narcissistic narrator to the intuitive blind man while utilizing sight as a symbol of emotional understanding. He establishes the difference between looking and seeing to prove that sight is more than physical.

Read More
979 Words | 4 Pages

Does the means justly the end and what defines the point death? Is it when you stop breathing? Or when you are buried six feet down? Scientifically, the point at which complete cessation of all bodily functions. Now, if a person were to be surgically disassembled in such a way that kept all the bits and pieces intact and alive through organ donation, is this death?

Read More
727 Words | 3 Pages

After a small introduction when the two characters first meet, the narrator recognizes that he “didn’t know what else to say” (Carver, 4), signifying his inability in connecting with Robert. A reason behind the trouble in connecting is discussed in “Literary Analysis of Cathedral” by Niwar A. Obaid, where he writes “The narrator’s apparently judgmental and doubtful tone… [set] a difficult attitude once the blind man and the narrator actually meet”. Obaid lists the narrator’s tone as one of the primary reasons why the narrator is reluctant to get to know Robert better. Since the narrator’s tone is caused by his prejudices, as previously shown, one can infer from Obaid’s writing that the real reason behind the narrator’s reluctance to form a relationship is his prejudice against the blind. Later in the story, Carver juxtaposes Robert’s readiness to learn more about the narrator to the narrator’s initial refusal to develop a relationship to Robert.

Read More
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.

Read More
578 Words | 3 Pages

Robert Owen was a social activist whom wanted to create the perfect society. Termed the “father of British socialism” Owen had his eyes set on the “New Land” across the pond…America. He felt that the states offered great opportunity for is dream to blossom, he was going to build a utopian community and change the way everybody viewed Socialism.

Read More
602 Words | 3 Pages

The narrator in the story represents a person who sees but cannot “see” and Robert as the character who can “see” but lacks the ability to see with his eyes. The cathedral that the narrator draws with the blind man represents the ability to see beyond the surface of things, and find underlying deeper meanings to things. Before drawing with Robert the narrator was so close

Read More
1358 Words | 6 Pages

Conflict is the essence of any literary fiction. The main goal of an author is to tell a story that keeps the reader interested. At the story’s core, conflict is the momentum of happening and change and is crucial on all levels for delivering information and building characterization as well as building the story itself.   Conflict is the source of change that engages a reader and keeps them interested. In a story, conflict and action does what description and telling of feelings and situations do not.

Read More
860 Words | 4 Pages

Furthermore, the narrator is starting to realize that he enjoys Robert’s company as well as compelled to explore Robert’s eye sight limits, to help Robert visualize a cathedral. The narrator tries to describe a cathedral, but failed to do so, and retreats back into cynicism. The narrator’s response Robert’s question was, “the truth is, cathedrals don’t mean anything special to me. Nothing cathedrals.

Read More
1063 Words | 5 Pages

Raymond Carver is said to be one the most influential American writers and poets in the 20th century, especially in his works of short stories. One of his most famous pieces is “Cathedral.” This well-known short story is the final piece in Carver’s collection Cathedral published in 1983. Carver includes much symbolism through the story’s plot, structure, point of view, tone, and character build. The depictions of each character’s experiences, the irony in the story, and hearing the narrator’s point of view in “Cathedral” work in harmony to support its themes that prejudice and ignorance as well as the nature of reality are present and change throughout the course of the story, and all lead to a strong character development by the close.

Read More
865 Words | 4 Pages

In the world of literature, stories are often released for the purpose of social commentary or even to reflect on the authors past in a that its similar to an autobiography. Raymond Carver is a unique author often creating short stories that are of his own personal life through fictional characters that embody the turmoil he has gone through and social commentary on social issues. This is seen especially in his 1981 short story, Cathedral with a revised version being released in 1983, but we are gonna focus on the 1981 original. Cathedral’s plot centers around a blind man named Robert who after his wife dies, he lives with his departed wife’s friend who soon alongside her husband, helps teach Robert to learn a new way of seeing. The plot of the story while simple, is very complex under the surface, being a plot that is about three people who is dependent on each other and the connection that develops.

Read More
528 Words | 3 Pages

The narrator then proceeds to show Robert what a cathedral looks like by taking his hand and drawing a cathedral on “a shopping bag with onion skins in the the bottom of the bag.” (Carver 110) . Through this bricolage, the narrator closes his eyes and has an epiphany, for in this moment where his eyes are closed, hands intertwined, he truly sees, and “ ‘It’s really something,” (Carver 135). It’s the minimalistic approach that prefaces this big event that really showcases the theme. Carver’s use of colloquial language, in creation of an increasingly relatable scene allows for the reader to empathize with the narrator, allowing for a much stronger impact when the epiphany occurs and the story’s theme has been

Read More
1054 Words | 5 Pages

The renowned author, Raymond Carver, utilizes dramatic and situational irony throughout his short stories, Cathedral, Neighbors, and They’re not your husband. Carver is well known for using different types of irony to allure the reader. In Cathedral, and They 're not your husband situational irony is amply evident. Situational irony is when the opposite of what is expected to happen, occurs. However, in Neighbors, dramatic irony is prevalent.

Read More

More about Raymond Carver Cathedral Theme

Related Topics

Open Document