Stereotypes In Carver's Cathedral

Stereotype: a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. The short story Cathedral by Raymon Carver is an excellent representation of how conventional images we may hear about in everyday life are not always ideal. Cathedral is narrated by a man who has very black and white views of life. Most of his opinions of people and the world come from things he sees on TV or what he may have grown up with. The story starts off with his wife telling him that a blind older man who she used to be a caretaker for would be staying with them for a few days since his wife had recently passed. The narrator specifically obsesses over the fact that he was blind throughout the text. The main themes in this story

The setting of Cathedral also helps show the atmosphere and sets the scene for further dialogue of the characters. Carver does a great job at setting up the moment so that the reader has just enough details to understand what is really going on with the information being overwhelming. Cathedral’s way of showcasing moods and general traits of the characters presented allows readers to infer main ideas while also allowing you to think critically about new different theories of what is going on.

In the beginning of Cathedral our limited point of view from just the narrator makes it hard to figure out what is the main issue. There is no knowledge of any other person and can only make assumptions based on how we see other characters react. However one thing that helps is digging deeper into the choices and the

Taking into consideration that Robert can only speak to what people tell him and is unable to read body language, is also a key factor in his characterization. In view of the fact that Robert has an outgoing personality it is clear that has thrown a wrench in the narrator's sense of security and caused a rift between his wife. “When we first started going out together, she showed me the poem. In the poem, she recalled his fingers and the way they had moved around over her face. In the poem, she talked about what she had felt at the time, about what went through her mind when the blind man touched her nose and lips” (1-2). It is clear he is open to new things and ideas and is quite capable of reading tones of voice. He does not get offended easily when the narrator says things that could be considered tone deaf. “I got our drinks and sat down on the sofa with him. Then I rolled us two fat numbers. I lit one and passed it. I brought it to his fingers. He took it and inhaled. "Hold it as long as you can," I said. I could tell he didn't know the first thing” (10 Carver). Robert continues to try and build what he can of a relationship with the narrator, for instance, drawing the cathedral