ipl-logo

Raymond Carver The Cathedral Analysis

1017 Words5 Pages

The Cathedral by Raymond Carver is the story of a man, the narrator, who meet a blind person named Robert for the first time. He does not want to meet Robert, but because Robert is an old friend of his wife and an important person to her, he has no choice. During Robert’s visit, the husband is so uncomfortable and feeling jealous about his wife friendship with Robert. We can feel his jealousy, while the Robert and the narrator’s wife having conversations in the beginning of the story, “And then my dear husband came into my life”—“something like that. But I heard nothing of the sort. More talk of Robert.” As the story processing, he keeps mentioning Robert “the blind guy” which is very insulting and make the reader feel hate him. Also, he does …show more content…

This moment is a breakthrough for the narrator, he said “It’s really something.” From that moment he starts to see Robert as a human being and not just a blind man. By drawing a Cathedral, the narrator opens up himself for the first time to connect with someone else. Cathedral is a place for people to feel more closer to god and feel more connected the great power. In this story, drawing the cathedral has the same results for the narrator, and while he drawing a cathedral, he feels he is experiencing something new and meaningful in his life, “It was like nothing else in my life up to now.” It was a new feeling that none of his past experiences had given him before. Not drinking, not smoking drugs and not even his marriage. He was feeling he is inside of the cathedral and was feeling amazed by the great and the powers that the cathedral has. Cathedrals are the masterpieces buildings. Their huge height and beautiful artistic interiors and exteriors always inspired the visitors. Also, the narrator got inspired, he was feeling he is inside of the cathedral, while he was just drawing it at his own house. This is exactly the way that Robert understands the meanings of life. By drawing the cathedral the narrator has learned how to connect with Robert and at the same time he feels he connected to something greater and more interesting in his

Show More
Related
712 Words | 3 Pages

In the opening sentence of “Cathedral”, the narrator identifies Robert as “this blind man” as opposed to the various other labels he could heap upon him (Carver 514). The narrator also propagates the idea that “the blind move slowly and never laugh”, an illogical stereotype. This is not dissimilar to Jesus’s discriminatory treatment at the hands of the Romans as he conceptualized Christianity and spread his message to the people. Robert and the narrator have a Christian communion experience of sorts that

Read More
652 Words | 3 Pages

Each thought is rapidly flowing through his mind, and he cannot stop thinking about his wife being with the blind man, Robert. The language of the narrator depicts the emotion that he has frequently attempted to conceal from his wife. Furthermore, the excessive use of the word “she” demonstrates how the husband is upset over his wife’s action, not the blind man’s. The husband is not upset when Robert is with his wife, but he is enraged over the thought of his wife voluntarily hanging out with Robert. “She worked with this blind man all summer.”

Read More
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
1268 Words | 6 Pages

He realizes how smart Robert is, and he keeps being shocked as the night goes on. While listening to a show about Cathedrals, Robert asks the narrator to describe him a Cathedral. The narrator tries his hardest, but can not do it. To combat this, Robert takes the narrator's hand and has him close his eyes and together they draw the church just from memory. After drawing the Cathedrals, the narrator describes the picture as, “ It’s really something” (103).He learns how seeing is not everything in life, and how wrong he was with his assumptions about Robert.

Read More
1235 Words | 5 Pages

What if your hometown reflected the events taking place in an entire era? For Scout Finch, her hometown of Maycomb does just that. In author Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the town of Maycomb is like a twisted thick forest that blocks a clear path to fairness and equality, and sets a model that mirrors the racial tensions and discrimination in Southern America in the 1930’s. We see this displayed in the novel through the social structure of the town, the legal system, the Tom Robinson court case, and finally how Maycomb has figures within its society that stand for hope, and change.

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

The author use of the title “Cathedral” was misleading at first. “Cathedral” is about a husband who had an interesting experience with his wife’s blind friend. The narrator, also known as the husband, had difficulty understanding other people thoughts and personal feelings. The narrator knew how important the blind man is to his wife, yet he still makes careless jokes about him. “Maybe I could take him bowling” was a comment made by the narrator after finding out that the blind man was staying over his house.

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
529 Words | 3 Pages

Utilitarianism is a philosophical theory that claims that the morally right action is the one that produces more good and fewer dire consequences for everyone than any other action. Rule utilitarianism is a version that emphasizes the importance of following rules that promote the most important overall happiness or well-being for the most significant number of people. James Rachels, in his work "More Impertinent Distinctions and a Defense of Active Euthanasia," argues that in the case of euthanasia, "if an action promotes the best interests of everyone concerned, and violates no one's rights, then that action is morally acceptable." He argues that "in at least some cases, active euthanasia promotes the best interests of everyone concerned

Read More
727 Words | 3 Pages

In the story, the narrator’s narrow mindset is challenged over and over again as Robert breaks most stereotypes that the narrator held. As these stereotypes are broken, the narrator begins to feel more comfortable with Robert, and sincerely tells him that he is “glad for the company”. This release from prejudice culminates in the cathedral drawing scene of the story, where the narrator finally lets go of his bias towards blind people. Once the narrator closes his eyes, he is seemingly equal to Robert, and he consequently begins to understand Robert’s perspective. His newfound empathy towards Robert demonstrates how he has lost his prejudice towards him.

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
1358 Words | 6 Pages

Narrated in the first person, Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” is bound to unfold due to the thoughts and feelings of one of the main characters, the husband. Expectedly, the conflict revolves around him and the way he responds to the conflict leads

Read More
860 Words | 4 Pages

With this, readers could sense that the narrator is jealous, grouchy, and angry that Robert’s presence affects the narrator’s wife because of the connection between both the wife and Robert. The author prepares readers for the enlightenment when Robert came for a visit and that is how cathedral came about. The narrator explains, “The TV showed this one cathedral” (110). In this scene, the narrator and Robert bonded about the appearance of the cathedral. Instantly, the narrator says to Robert, “Do you have any idea what a cathedral is?

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
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

More about Raymond Carver The Cathedral Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document