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The Theme Of Freedom In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

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Freedom is not always about physical freedom, sometimes it is more than that. People have their own psychological fears that act as a barrier towards their own open mind. In the story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, the narrator has very limited knowledge about the blind people. Whatever he knows about them is through some sort of media. The blind man Robert, shares a deep relationship with the narrator’s wife. They both exchange their life events with each other through mailing tapes. The narrator was not excited about Robert’s visit to his house in order to see the narrator’s wife.. Later, as he observed Robert closely, he felt that Robert is not like the blind man he assumed he would be. He realized that the blind are similar to people with
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When first reading the story the narrator comes across as someone with a not so pleasant attitude. The narrator's wife and an old friend or hers named Robert; who is blind, have been communicating with each other for the past ten years. It's pretty obvious that the narrator is jealous of Robert. This is part of why the narrator has issues with blind people. “My idea of blindness came from the movies.

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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.”

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1375 Words | 6 Pages

In both short stories, “Cathedral” written by Raymond Carver and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” written by Flannery O’Connor, we encounter characters that have a limited perspective on life. We find that the unnamed narrator in “Cathedral” has a bias mindset towards the blind man, Robert before he even meets and gets to know him. While in “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the grandmother is ignorant of her surroundings while being oblivious to her own flaws. Both stories demonstrate the overcoming of blindness through prejudice and vanity to end up seeing something greater than themselves through the use of characterization, symbolism, and epiphanies. In “Cathedral,” the narrator’s wife invites her blind friend, Robert, to stay in their home

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1268 Words | 6 Pages

The narrator finally understands how Robert can love a woman or even just eat dinner being blind, since looking is not as important as he once thought. The townspeople were also just as wrong about Miss. Emily. When Emily dies, the townspeople are let into

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597 Words | 3 Pages

Sight is a gift that people are given that an abundance of people takes for granted in countless ways. In the story “Cathedral”, written by Raymond Carver, readers are introduced to a modern story on people realizing the truth behind the art of not seeing. He uses intense and lyrical descriptions on both sides of being blind and seeing through someone who cannot physically see. An abundance of people has found themselves under the ridicule of judging, and finding this unfortunate defect within someone’s unique genetic makeup to be a burden or even a curse from God. Within this story the main character learns to see without actually seeing with the help of his new-found friend Robert who teaches him new ways of looking upon his own life.

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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

“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.

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998 Words | 4 Pages

Through their interactions, the narrator and Robert are able to communicate and understand each other in ways that the narrator never thought possible. This highlights the idea that true communication and understanding are possible only when individuals are willing to put aside their assumptions and biases, and to open themselves to the perspectives of

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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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628 Words | 3 Pages

This essay is about the influence of the Medici family on Florentine art and the development of humanist thought. The Medici family had a lot of power for four generations (1418-1494) as they were a wealthy family who owned banks and got their money from “banking interests”. They “molded and manipulated, controlled and cajoled, persuaded and poked” the citizens of Florence until 1494, when the angry citizens overthrew the Medici family. The family created their own “personal work of art” in Florence by filling up the city-state with classical antiquity. They had so much of control over their citizens that later on, the citizens accepted and followed the way of living that the Medici family demanded.

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In “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, the narrator struggles with an internal conflict that involves him never being able to be in a vulnerable or sensitive state, especially when he is with his wife. The narrator creates suspense by having the reader wait until the end to realize what the blind man was referring to when he states, “From all you’ve said about him, I can only conclude—” (Carver 35). The reader can observe that the blind man was explaining that the husband was missing out on all aspects of life and the little things the world has to offer. The husband was so closed-minded, that he was missing out on having a deeper connection with his wife.

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1358 Words | 6 Pages

The story revolves around three characters, a husband who is also referred to as Bub, his wife, and a blind man, Robert. The story begins with the wife reminiscing back at the times that she shared with Robert. She continues to talk about how much she enjoyed spending time with him. She talks about how she has kept in touch with him and how she has even written about Robert before. Even though the narrator doesn’t directly state to his wife, he happens to be “irritated” (Facknitz) by the fact his wife tends to have a connection with Robert.

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860 Words | 4 Pages

In the works of Literature an epiphany is “a moment of profound insight or revelation by which a character’s life is greatly altered” (24). In the short story “Cathedral” Raymond Carver uses epiphany to draw on the theme, blinded views can alter someone’s behavior. On the realistic level, epiphany advances the plot and character development because they are the basis for the story’s central action. They also help define the narrator and play a vital part in revealing the story’s theme. The following changes in the character’s views have shown an evident development.

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1007 Words | 5 Pages

Winter’s Bone, a novel by Daniel Woodrell, examines the struggles of people in rural areas through the protagonist, Ree Dolly. Set in the backwoods of the Ozarks, this story is filled with characters who partake in drugs, crimes, and violence. Woodrell paints a picture of the situation through the eyes of someone who is battling to survive the world while living in a community that is deeply affected by the effects of poverty. Of the numerous effects poverty has upon the rural community, Woodrell brings to light how a lack of education, overuse of drugs, and child abuse result from destitution. The issue of poverty can be complex, however, it is a much more abstract condition for over 40 million Americans who daily face struggles with food, shelter, and basic health care (Poverty).

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1054 Words | 5 Pages

Robert literally can’t see, but he does obtain vision only on a deeper level. The narrator isn’t too enamored with the idea of another man coming to his home. He is insensitive and makes some harsh comments that make Robert feel a little uncomfortable. Due to his callous and unsympathetic personality, the narrator is never able to connect with his wife while Robert is instantly able to. Robert comes to visit the narrator and his wife at their home for the first time.

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