Team Reinterpretation Of Raymond Carver's Cathedral

Team Reinterpretation: Raymond Carvers Cathedral

Raymond Carver, born in Clatskanie, Oregon, in 1938 was a short story writer that played an influential role in the revival of the short story form in the 1980s (Peninsula College). Throughout Carver's career as a writer, he suffered from alcohol addiction and was even hospitalized on several occasions due to his addictions; eventually, Carver was able to recover from this addiction. Carver has many exceptional works including, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”, “A Small Good Thing”, and “Cathedral”, these works are often written in a minimalistic style, which Carver often disliked as he believed it “misrepresented the nature of his work” (Peninsula College). The purpose of this paper

He merely looks at the world around him, skimming the surface without delving into its deeper meanings. This point is depicted when the narrator describes the cathedral stating, “‘They’re really big, ’I said. They’re massive. They’re built of stone. Marble, too, sometimes. In those olden days, when they built cathedrals, men wanted to be close to God. In those olden days, God was an important part of everyone’s life. You could tell this from their cathedral building. I’m sorry,’ I said, ‘but it looks like that’s the best I can do for you. I’m just no good at it” (Carver 11). In contrast, Robert, who is blind, exemplifies the concept of seeing in a profound manner. Despite his lack of sight, Robert's interactions with the world are characterized by a deeper understanding and insight. He grasps the essence of people and situations by truly engaging with them, metaphorically looking at the world in its entirety. As the story progresses the narrator seems to have breakthroughs with Robert when it comes to his views of the world. This can be seen in the final lines of the story when the narrator states, “My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything. ‘It’s really something,’ I said” (Carver 13). This quote allows readers to see the transformation of the narrator over the duration of the story from someone who is unable to

The wife's fondness for writing poems becomes a means to commemorate significant moments in her life, offering her a creative outlet to convey emotions and experiences. The act of crafting poetry allows her to distill complex feelings into concise and evocative verses. Along with the poetry the wife creates, she has also been making tapes for Robert in order to communicate with him for the past ten years. Arguably, the tapes can be seen merely as a form of communication between two friends, however, the expression that comes from them is a piece of art in itself. Similarly, the act of drawing the cathedral becomes a transformative experience for both the Narrator and Robert. Through their shared endeavor, they unearth insights about themselves and each other that extend beyond the realm of words. As they engage in this collaborative artistic process, the boundaries that once separated them begin to dissolve, giving way to a more profound understanding of their own emotions and perspectives. The act of drawing the cathedral allows the Narrator to further understand what it means to see, to look for the detail and beauty in things, rather than just looking at something without grasping what he is looking at. As “Cathedral” has a rather open ending it is not clear what the Narrator is truly feeling, but one can assume that he is feeling a profound sense of meaning for what he