The story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver is about one man’s understanding and acceptance of a blind man. The narrator represents the story’s dominant theme of overcoming prejudice of the blind through personal experience as well as mutual respect. The narrator‚ who remains nameless‚ holds deeply unfounded beliefs and stereotypes of what a blind person should be‚ yet over a relatively short period of time he develops a bond with the blind man‚ whom at first he privately mocked. The narrator’s preconceived
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Can a blind person see better than a person with sight? In the short story‚ “Cathedral”‚ by Raymond Carver‚ its inferred that blind people truly can visualize the world‚ not physically‚ but in a more remarkable way than others. To help develop this theme of blind people being able to see‚ and those who can see are blind‚ Raymond Carver uses different rhetorical devices such as simple diction and irony. The narrator of the story lacks deep thought on different subjects; however‚ as for the blind man
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The short story “Cathedral” is an intriguing piece of writing written by Raymond Carver. In this story‚ the author created a character‚ the narrator‚ as a person that lacked warmth or emotional involvement‚ even with his own wife. The blind man is portrayed as a human being with a love for life. He has a human connection towards the narrator’s wife whereby he fully understands her emotions and supports her needs. My essay will explore the use of setting in this short story. My thesis will focus
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In Cathedral‚ by Raymond Carver‚ a blind man is visiting his friend that took care of him ten years ago. Although never given a name in this story‚ the narrator’s (Bub’s) wife is an important character. It is her friendship with Robert that "makes" the story. For her‚ it started out just as a job‚ and grew into much more. She read to Robert and helped him with all the household chores. She left working for him because her husband went to officer training school so they had to move. The blind man
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Throughout the story‚ Cathedral‚ by Raymond Carver‚ readers are shown the other side of blindness. In the world‚ one may assume that there is just one type of blindness- being sightless. “My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies‚ the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (Carver‚ 1). The meaning of blindness goes much deeper than that. Through the actions and words of a character
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Summary of Cathedral On the surface Raymond Carver’s‚ Cathedral is nothing more than a story of acceptance. The story takes place in New York around the 1980’s. The principle characters include: The Narrator who is a jealous husband‚ Robert a blind man who is kindhearted and the Narrator’s wife who is a lonely woman looking for attention. The story begins when an old friend of the Narrator’s wife‚ Robert‚ was coming to visit. The Narrator’s wife used to work for Robert when she lived in Seattle
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The narrator of Cathedral is many things; jealous‚ sarcastic‚ insensitive‚ inconsiderate‚ and overall just a bad person‚ he is also‚ surprisingly‚ a sympathetic character. While he exuberates many flaws and emotions that we do not readily show ourselves‚ this does not strike the fact that we can sympathise and relate to the narrator. In fact‚ it is the fact that he shows all of these flaws that make him a sympathetic character. The reason being is that he shows the emotions and flaws that humans
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In Cathedral by Raymond Carver‚ we observe the way narrator sees and understands the things around him‚ and along with it we see some of the character traits like being arrogant and timid. It is seen throughout the short story that the narrator doesn’t seem to understand himself and these characteristics as he spoke to the blind man. However‚ speaking to the blind man not only ignited his hidden characters traits it also showed his hidden talents of sympathy to one’s disability. Early into the
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In the short story “Cathedral”‚ by Raymond Carver‚ the narrator’s wife has a blind friend who is coming to visit them at their house. The narrator (also known as the husband) is unhappy with this because the old man’s disability makes him feel very uncomfortable. However‚ the more the husband interacts with the blind man‚ the more he learns to overlook his blindness and accept him as a normal human being. Through characterization and symbolism‚ Carver proves that seeing people as individuals rather
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1. Is Patrick lonely? In my opinion‚ I feel as though the boy is lonely‚ living in such a remote and desolate place‚ with only his father to spend his time with. For example Ondaatje says‚ “He was born into a region which did not appear on a map until 1910‚ though his family had worked there for twenty hears and the land had been homesteaded since 1816. In the school atlas the place is pale green and nameless. The river slips out of an unnamed lake…” (10-11). Patrick’s characteristics makes him
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