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Story Of A Blind Man By Raymond Carver

1036 Words5 Pages

The first thing I noticed about this story is the style it was written in. It actually sounds like something someone would say, and Raymond Carver writes it so well that if read aloud, it would sounds like a conversation, but also like the narrators thoughts. The narrator says things like "He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me." This is something that many people probably feel, a general discomfort around disabled people. The narrator then talks about how he got his view of blind people from movies he had seen, and that he wasn't looking forward to having a blind man in his home. This is a rather small part of the story, but it is one that I, and surely other readers, can connect to. Many people, including …show more content…

The wife had been gone for a while, and the narrator wonders if she'll come back. The narrator, still being uncomfortable around the blind man, offers Robert some dope. To my surprise, Robert took some. I believe this leads to the narrator starting to realize that though he is blind, Robert is a normal man. At this point in the story, I found Carver's candid telling of Robert, the narrator, and the wife smoking marijuana quite humorous. I appreciate that this is not a topic a known writer would put in his story with such detail typically. It also goes with the modern day idea (among teens) that tokers are cool, relaxed people. When Robert took the dope offered by the narrator, I (and surely the narrator) thought Robert to be a more complex and easy going person than first thought. Afterwards, the wife begins to fall asleep on the couch. Robert says that he will still stay up with the narrator, who is honestly glad for the company. A small exchange occurs and Robert says that he is always learning, because he listens. This gives even more depth to a well fleshed out character, and it helps the reader to understand even more about

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564 Words | 3 Pages

In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to.” This is a common stereotype that the narrator uses in the story leading his character down a path of misunderstanding.

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930 Words | 4 Pages

The blind man whose name is Robert has also recently lost his wife. The narrator seems jealous of the relationship between Robert and his wife, he isn’t interested in speaking to him and only joins in their conversation out of a sense of jealousy. The narrator even thinks his wife has told the Robert everything about their relationship even though he can’t confirm it. When Robert initially comes to visit the narrator and his wife at their home he doesn’t have the most welcoming attitude but as the story progresses the narrator attitude towards Robert changes. The narrator alludes to “not knowing much about the blind besides what he saw in movies” (Carver in Gardner, Lawn, Ridl, & Schakel, 2013, p.302).

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532 Words | 3 Pages

Colton Reome 3.08 Fear in Film Critique Observation Organizer Title of film: Jaws Review #1 1. Critic: Roger Ebert 2. Title of Critique: Jaws Movie Review & Film Summary (1975) | Roger Ebert 3. Provide a basic outline of the critic’s article.

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260 Words | 2 Pages

The protagonist in Raymond Carver’s essay “Cathedral” is the husband of the wife in the story. From the start he was never too thrilled to be having the blind man stay with him in his home. He felt uncomfortable and he also had no idea what to expect because he had never been around a blind man before. After his wife falls asleep the man seems to slowly start to have a more open mind when it comes to the blind man. They start to talk and connect.

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780 Words | 4 Pages

The narrator had never meet a blind person before and believed in the stereotypes. The narrator said “A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (Carver 331), in the last sentence of the first paragraph. For the narrator, there should be no problem letting a blind man into the house. Throughout this short story the husband continues to make short remarks to the old blind man, as well as keeping a routine for making comments to the blind man. For the reader it is really easy not to pay attention to the story and instantly get annoyed.

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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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910 Words | 4 Pages

Because of his narcissistic personality, the narrator views his wife as an object, while the blind man, Robert, treats her as a friend and a confidant. The narrator’s inability to feel emotion causes him to value his wife’s body more than her emotions, therefore, he becomes jealous when the blind

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1063 Words | 5 Pages

One can see that the narrator does not "see" or understand what Robert’s blindness means. He does not change Robert as a human being because he does not even see it worth giving an effort to join the conversation. When the narrator’s wife leaves to go upstairs, he cringes at being left alone with Robert, so he asks Robert if he would like to smoke dope. This shows that the narrator is so uncomfortable with the idea of just sitting with Robert that by introducing dope into the mix he can avoid actually having to have a conversation with him. Because of the narrator’s inability to interact with Robert, one is made aware once again of his fear concerning the different life the blind

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1094 Words | 5 Pages

But as he said that idea “came from the movies,”(1). The narrator is irritated by Robert’s visit. He thought that blind man might be a nuisance. In the passage the narrator remarks, “A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to,”(1). He thinks that the Robert will cause things to be problematic.

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727 Words | 3 Pages

Carver highlights the narrator’s prejudice in the opening section of the story in order to reveal how the narrator’s bias against blind people in general leads to a preconceived negative opinion on Robert. From the outset, the narrator acknowledges his prejudice by mentioning that his “idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed” (Carver, 1). The narrator’s negative prejudice is not caused by knowing a blind man; rather, it is derived from an external factor, demonstrating how the narrator has formulated an opinion on people he has never met. Consequently, the narrator assumes that Robert will conform to the negative stereotype present in his mind, and is unpleased about Robert’s visit.

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917 Words | 4 Pages

However, the story takes an unpredicted and meaningful turn at the end when the narrator see things from a blind man’s standpoint. Since the beginning of the story, the narrator does not like the idea of having in his house a blind man. He does not know how to socialize with blind people because his idea of blindness came from the movies. He thinks blind people move slowly and they never laugh.

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709 Words | 3 Pages

He became homesick and went home. In this short story, Carver is showing how stereotyping a relevant thing both today and when this story was written. In this short story the narrator was uncomfortable with the idea of another man coming to stay in his home not to mention a blind man. At the beginning of

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1063 Words | 5 Pages

Robert’s wife has recently died and he used to work for the narrator’s wife. Robert comes to visit the narrator’s home and the narrator is not happy about this because he believes blind people to be miserable and gloomy based solely on what he has absorbed from the movies. At the end of the first paragraph, he says, “A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (1.1). Little to the narrator’s knowledge, his wife and Robert had been using audio tape to correspond over ten years, and have much past history with each other. The narrator’s wife makes sure he knows to make Robert comfortable, and if he doesn’t it shows that he does not love her.

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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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922 Words | 4 Pages

Who are you? Those three words put together can be bothering and stressful. There are various ways people can answer. Many people may say their job title, their name, or their likes and dislikes.

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