Comparative Paper on "Perfect Sunday" by Jose Ayala and "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver
The Second Joyful Mystery
Ding-dong. As I lazily got up to answer the door of the short stories in my hand, I was surprised to see a blind man, named Robert and a long lost grandson, named Jorge. Perfect Sunday by Jose Ayala and Cathedral by Raymond Carver both revolves around the host-visitor dynamic. Raymond Carver’s Cathedral revolves around the interaction of the character of the husband and his wife’s long time blind friend, Robert and Jose Ayala’s Perfect Sunday delves into Jorge’s visit to his grandmother. As both pairs of characters engage in small talk they are able to reconnect, establish new ties and discover more of themselves. The characters of the short stories will be cross-examined with each other. First would be visitor to visitor then host to host, Jorge to Robert and Doña Santos to the husband. Then Jorge will be compared to the husband and Doña Santos will be compared to Robert. Through this we can discover the deeper ideas both short stories possess. Jorge and Robert are both the visitors in the short stories. Both characters appear to be unconventional to the host characters. The husband and Doña Santos are in a way traditional and conservative. In Cathedral the husband was at first not very comfortable with Robert visiting. Aside from Robert being a complete stranger, the husband was not at ease about the idea that Robert was blind. The husband had a lot of preconceived notions about how blind men behaved and looked like. The thought that Robert married an African-American woman came as a shock to him. He even reacted quite violently. “Her name was Beulah. Beulah! That’s a name of a colored woman. “Was his wife a Negro?” I asked”. He also was surprised when he saw Robert with a beard and without a cane or a pair of glasses. He was even taken aback with the way Robert ate. “I watched with admiration as he used his knife and fork on the meat”. In Perfect Sunday Doña Santos is the typical grandmother. According to the text she is of
Ding-dong. As I lazily got up to answer the door of the short stories in my hand, I was surprised to see a blind man, named Robert and a long lost grandson, named Jorge. Perfect Sunday by Jose Ayala and Cathedral by Raymond Carver both revolves around the host-visitor dynamic. Raymond Carver’s Cathedral revolves around the interaction of the character of the husband and his wife’s long time blind friend, Robert and Jose Ayala’s Perfect Sunday delves into Jorge’s visit to his grandmother. As both pairs of characters engage in small talk they are able to reconnect, establish new ties and discover more of themselves. The characters of the short stories will be cross-examined with each other. First would be visitor to visitor then host to host, Jorge to Robert and Doña Santos to the husband. Then Jorge will be compared to the husband and Doña Santos will be compared to Robert. Through this we can discover the deeper ideas both short stories possess. Jorge and Robert are both the visitors in the short stories. Both characters appear to be unconventional to the host characters. The husband and Doña Santos are in a way traditional and conservative. In Cathedral the husband was at first not very comfortable with Robert visiting. Aside from Robert being a complete stranger, the husband was not at ease about the idea that Robert was blind. The husband had a lot of preconceived notions about how blind men behaved and looked like. The thought that Robert married an African-American woman came as a shock to him. He even reacted quite violently. “Her name was Beulah. Beulah! That’s a name of a colored woman. “Was his wife a Negro?” I asked”. He also was surprised when he saw Robert with a beard and without a cane or a pair of glasses. He was even taken aback with the way Robert ate. “I watched with admiration as he used his knife and fork on the meat”. In Perfect Sunday Doña Santos is the typical grandmother. According to the text she is of