Fear is an emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous and it can cause pain, or become a threat. When faced with fear of the unknown, it causes people to see what they want to see. In the short stories The Shabbat by Marjane Satrapi and the Cathedral by Raymond Carver the characters are faced with their fears and it changes their perception of reality and they see what they want to see.
The Shabbat is a chapter in the chronicles Persepolis that tells the story of a young girl living in Iraqi with her family. The Shabbat is told in first person narration by author Marjane Satrapi who, goes by Marji in the story. She takes readers through her eyes to show family and society life during the Iranian war; where at the end of the story her next door neighbors die after their home is bombed. Fear is acknowledged throughout the story as the Iranian war progresses by Marji and her family. They all deal with their emotions of fear differently and their perception of reality makes them view the country’s current situation indifferently. Readers can
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The narrator who does not reveal his name tells the story about his wife’s blind friend, Robert who is coming to visit and stay the night. Throughout the story the narrator expresses his many negative views about Robert’s visual impairment even before meeting him. He goes on to describe the history of Robert and his wife. In the end it turns out to be an eye-opening experience for the narrator after meeting Robert. The fear for the narrator is the emotional response that Robert ignites in his wife that he must attend to. The narrators’ unknown is he does not understand how his wife can have feelings for someone that cannot see her. Rather than the narrator understanding or seeing where his wife’s feelings for Robert are stemming from the narrator only pushes his wife away as well as angers her with his stereotypical