Isolation As A Metaphor For Disability In 'Noon Wine'

In Cathedral, the unnamed narrator, husband, defines the character of Robert as an anomaly in which he doesn’t comprehend. “He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me. 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 1983). The media has been able to lead people like the narrator to develop negative opinions towards those with disabilities creating a type of phobia. After hearing stories about Robert, told by his wife, he could not imagine this blind man having a good life, one worth living. He assumes that Robert’s wife, Beulah, had lived a very pitiful life as well, not having her husband ever knowing what she looked like or what subtle nuances her facial expressions could only show through sight.

“Harrison Bergeron, “a short story by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., takes place in a totalitarian society where everyone is equal through handicaps forced on them by the government. Harrison, the main character, attempts to save the broken society, but ultimately fails to change anything. Vonnegut uses Harrison as a Christ figure in his novel ironically, to make a statement about our own society today and how we are blind to many political things happening around us. These ideas can be explored through analyzing Thomas Foster’s novel How to Read Literature like a Professor.

In “Harrison Bergeron”, a short story by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., his choice of figurative language and negative themes left the reader to question their own society. The first type of figurative language used by Vonnegut was alliteration. He used this to describe and exagerate the handicaps that Harrison had. Vonnegut writes on page 24, “ Harrison’s appearance was Halloween and hardware. Nobody had ever borne heavier handicaps.

This idea of forced equality can be seen once the narrator described “...appearance [as] Halloween and hardware. Nobody has ever borne heavier handicaps (Vonnegut 5). Depicted as a kind of oppression, Harrison rebels against a government that handicaps anyone that is deemed above

Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” tells a brief story of the Bergeron family. The family is torn apart and suffering under an oppressive, dystopian society in which the government puts physical limitations on people who have above-average intelligence, looks, and athletic abilities. The story’s main characters are husband and wife George and Hazel Bergeron and their son, Harrison Bergeron. Harrison is ultimately gunned down after breaking out of jail and dancing without limitations by the Handicapper General Diana Moon Glampers, responsible for enforcing the handicap laws that govern their society. Lexi Stuckey argues that Kurt Vonnegut is a strong advocate for a “homogenous society” and, in a way, endorses the execution of society rules

Then she threatened the others who had taken off their handicaps. Then, the gunshot noise rung throughout George's ear and he suddenly forgot what graceful and beautiful thing he had just seen.(40) With this being said, the conflict in “Harrison Bergeron” helped the readers understand the author's point of view about having an equal society by showing all the things about their handicaps that were negative. For example, the bags of birdshot tiring them out and the possibility of getting jail time and fined, the loud ear piercing noises in their ears that made them wince, and the masks that made them look ugly. So what is so wrong with an unequal

Prejudice is an issue that is present in communities around the world due to diversity in race, religion, sexual orientation, lifestyles and physical disabilities of others as well. However, sometimes it just takes a life changing moment for one to realize that he or she should not discriminate against others just because of their appearance or beliefs. In the story “Cathedral”, author Raymond Carver writes about a man who is prejudging towards his wife’s blind friend, Robert, who will be visiting the couple. At first the narrator, or “Bub” as Robert nicknamed him, does not like the idea of Robert staying there because he is blind. Once Robert arrives, “Bub” does not really make an effort to get along with him; they had dinner together

Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” is a short story about a blind man who stays with the narrator and his wife, and the personal growth of the narrator that takes place throughout the night. The story opens at the home of the narrator and his wife as the blind man, who is an old friend of the wife, is on his way to visit his recently deceased wife’s relatives. Conflict in the story stems from the narrators apparent distaste for blind people and him not wanting a bind person to stay in their home. Throughout the night the wife and blind man discuss their lives and chat politely while the narrator feels increasingly uncomfortable and left-out in his struggle to communicate with a man who has no sight. After an awkward dinner, the wife goes upstairs leaving the blind man and the narrator alone. After a few awkward

The narrator does not find joy in learning, does not have close friendships, and superficially judges the world. According to his wife, he has no friends. “Every night I smoked dope and stayed up as long as I could before I fell asleep”. He has a monotonous life. He is also afraid of the blind man and does not know how to interact with him. The blind man’s eyes creep him out. “I’d always thought dark glasses were a must for the blind. Fact was, I wished he had a pair”. He judges the man based on his look instead of his personality. Even before he met the man, he fixated on the blindness. He also feels pity for

Carver presents the reader with several instances in which the narrator fails to express empathy towards his peers and form a deeper connection with them. At the start of the story, the narrator explains that his wife, “worked with the blind man all summer. She read stuff to him, cause studies, reports, that sort of thing” (244). The narrator’s wife once worked for the blind man, and she chooses to welcome him into their home after his wife passed away from cancer. Even after learning the new of the loss of the blind man’s wife, the narrator makes it clear that, “a blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (244).

An analysis of the theatrical depiction of disability in Amy and the Orphans illustrates how the intersection of disability and trauma requires a theoretical model rooted in both 'disability' and 'trauma studies. To adequately address the complexity of the lives of stigmatized individuals an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach to narrative analysis is needed. The theatrical representation of Examination of Amy's theatrical narrative demonstrates how seemingly opposing theoretical foundations of 'disability' and 'trauma studies' when applied "synergistically," provide a useful intersectional, theoretical model to explore further and expand the conceptualization of trauma and disability.

Raymond Carver’s The Cathedral is narrated by a man formed by his society who has a lesson to learn after meeting his wife’s long lost friend Robert, who is blind. In the beginning of our story our narrator is a close minded and judgemental man, his ill-minded opinions include prejudices against the blind. He assumes that he would have nothing in common with Robert because of these aforementioned prejudices based solely off of information gathered from movies (Carver 86). The narrator’s routine life style has left him with quite a substance abuse problem whether he acknowles it or not. Every night the narrator comes home to his wife, drinks as much scotch as he can, and then after his wife goes to sleep he smokes weed for a few hours until

Think back to the story “Told from the Drooling Ward” of Jack London, Tom - a main character who represents the victim of disability discrimination in the earlier twentieth century, frequently struggles to find his place in the real world. “Have been around a bit, and run away, and adopted”, however, Tom always decides to come back “Home” (the way he called the mental institution), the only place that makes he feel safe and be accepted as a normal human being. His adoptive parents - Mr. and Mrs. Bopp were really cruel when they yelled at him for being slow in his work and hurting him. His life was even getting worse when he was alone with the other children; they teased him “Looney” and threw rocks at him, just because he was “abnormal” to them. Another effect of discrimination against special needs individuals is also resulted in the lack of structures and means of transportation in public spaces that provide access to people with disabilities, for example, stairs that prohibit people in wheelchairs from even getting into a building so that they cannot participate with groups in public settings. As a result, people with disabilities such as

Like Orwell’s ”shooting an elephant” in David Birnbaum’s “the catbird seat” society pushed the narrator to act the way he does. He had no shame in taking advantage of his disability. “I was the only one in

Kurt Vonnegut’s unique story “Harrison Bergeron,” displays a theme which is a warning about the dangers of equality, which is equality is a hindrance to an individual’s success and society’s success, but this hindrance is ironically, unequal. In the story, Harrison and his bride are arrested for their unwillingness and inability to stay within the bounds of equality enforced by the Handicapper General. Equality hinders the success of an individual like the weights hinder the beauty and grace of the ballerinas in the story. Equality doesn’t promote everyone to be equally better, but to be unequally worse. Handicaps are no use in ensuring equality, because one’s strengths will always shine through, such as Harrison’s strength and wit, or the