The Motorcycle Diaries By Ernesto Che Guevara And Cathedral, By Raymond Carver
Discovery
Discoveries can be confronting and provocative, as discoveries can facilitate a fresh understanding of the world and people. This is evident in the Memoir The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevara and short story Cathedral By Raymond Carver. Che discovers the harsh reality of poverty, class distinctions and the beauty of nature through his journey through Latin America. In contrast, the protagonist of Cathedral has a renewed spiritual perception of the world and people by meeting a blind man.
Throughout The motorcycle diaries, Guevara discovers the harsh reality of poverty and class distinctions. With “Pitiful”, “acrid and “dirty”, Guevara uses a semantic field of words with negative connotations to sympathise and express
disgust with a sick woman’s awful living conditions.This experience leads him to realise the nature of poverty and the shame it brings to individuals. The asyndeton in “ Father, Mother, sister or brother” collects positive terms about family and is then juxtaposed to “a source of bitterness”. This highlights destroyed traditional values of cohesive families, as a result of extreme poverty which is unaddressed by society. “When a doctor is conscience of his own powerless” displays a shift from first person to third person. In a reflective tone, he evaluates his affluent place in society as a bourgeoisie, but ultimately unable to change the harsh living conditions that the poor people must experience. It is also an indication to a change in values. Guevara acknowledges his new perception of the world with the quote, “I now knew… I knew..”. The repetition of “knew” and ellipsis emphasises his new knowledge of the unfair treatment of the lower class. His discovery stimulates the idea of future possibility of a better, more equal world through social justice.
Guevara discovers the reality of poverty and class distinctions, thus having a renewed social perception of the world. However, the protagonist in Cathedral has a fresh spiritual discovery of the world and people. The use of dramatic irony makes light of the protagonist’s narrow mind and therefore his blunt and narrow perspective of the world. The narrator states that his "idea of blindness came from the movies", though it is clear that while he believes there is a stereotypical view of blind people and as dramatic irony, he does not know that sighted man he is blind to the possibilities of other perceptions of the world. When asked to draw a cathedral he gives a rhetorical question in a stressed tone, “how could i even describe it?”. Carver uses irony again, as the protagonist struggles to describe the world without resorting to typical, physical attributes to a blind man due to his spiritual blindness to the world. The act of the blind man placing his hand on the sighted man’s hand and telling him to close his eyes to help him draw the cathedral is symbolic of an empathic connection made between them. The protagonist looks through the perception of the blind man and perceives the world and people with new insight. “... It’s really something” uses ellipsis emphasis that he has transcended the physical bound of reality and is free from the limitations of his physical sight. Therefore, Carver’s Cathedral is an example of a spiritual discovery that opens up a new perspective of the world and people.
nce if it is for winning wars, no matter if lives are lost. The alliteration of “cracked crowns” promotes the effect of onomatopoeia an
Discoveries can be confronting and provocative, as discoveries can facilitate a fresh understanding of the world and people. This is evident in the Memoir The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevara and short story Cathedral By Raymond Carver. Che discovers the harsh reality of poverty, class distinctions and the beauty of nature through his journey through Latin America. In contrast, the protagonist of Cathedral has a renewed spiritual perception of the world and people by meeting a blind man.
Throughout The motorcycle diaries, Guevara discovers the harsh reality of poverty and class distinctions. With “Pitiful”, “acrid and “dirty”, Guevara uses a semantic field of words with negative connotations to sympathise and express
disgust with a sick woman’s awful living conditions.This experience leads him to realise the nature of poverty and the shame it brings to individuals. The asyndeton in “ Father, Mother, sister or brother” collects positive terms about family and is then juxtaposed to “a source of bitterness”. This highlights destroyed traditional values of cohesive families, as a result of extreme poverty which is unaddressed by society. “When a doctor is conscience of his own powerless” displays a shift from first person to third person. In a reflective tone, he evaluates his affluent place in society as a bourgeoisie, but ultimately unable to change the harsh living conditions that the poor people must experience. It is also an indication to a change in values. Guevara acknowledges his new perception of the world with the quote, “I now knew… I knew..”. The repetition of “knew” and ellipsis emphasises his new knowledge of the unfair treatment of the lower class. His discovery stimulates the idea of future possibility of a better, more equal world through social justice.
Guevara discovers the reality of poverty and class distinctions, thus having a renewed social perception of the world. However, the protagonist in Cathedral has a fresh spiritual discovery of the world and people. The use of dramatic irony makes light of the protagonist’s narrow mind and therefore his blunt and narrow perspective of the world. The narrator states that his "idea of blindness came from the movies", though it is clear that while he believes there is a stereotypical view of blind people and as dramatic irony, he does not know that sighted man he is blind to the possibilities of other perceptions of the world. When asked to draw a cathedral he gives a rhetorical question in a stressed tone, “how could i even describe it?”. Carver uses irony again, as the protagonist struggles to describe the world without resorting to typical, physical attributes to a blind man due to his spiritual blindness to the world. The act of the blind man placing his hand on the sighted man’s hand and telling him to close his eyes to help him draw the cathedral is symbolic of an empathic connection made between them. The protagonist looks through the perception of the blind man and perceives the world and people with new insight. “... It’s really something” uses ellipsis emphasis that he has transcended the physical bound of reality and is free from the limitations of his physical sight. Therefore, Carver’s Cathedral is an example of a spiritual discovery that opens up a new perspective of the world and people.
nce if it is for winning wars, no matter if lives are lost. The alliteration of “cracked crowns” promotes the effect of onomatopoeia an