Summary Of Hellen Keller 's Three Days

In the short story, Cathedral by Raymond Carver, the word “blind” acquires different meanings. The unnamed narrator is metaphorically blind; he can look at the surface of everything but not see what is inside. Although the narrator can listen to conversations, he cannot understand the deeper emotional context the conversation might hold, compared to Robert, who is visually impaired but can truly listen and understand. It is not until the end of the story that the narrator metaphorically opens his eyes, with assistance from Robert.

“Helen became an "ambassador for the blind," raising money and lobbying for the sightless. From her first trip to Japan in 1937 until her retirement, she made nine tours around the world and visited 34 countries.” Everywhere she went Helen inspired people with her incredible story and her campaigns for the better treatment of the blind. Keller once said, “‘A person who is severely impaired never knows his hidden sources of strength until he is treated like a normal human being and encouraged to shape his own life.’” The speeches she gave helped people to understand how to treat those with disabilities. It helped them to realize that they are just normal human beings. Keller’s tours around the world greatly improved the lives of people with

Blindness is not limited to physical manifestation. In Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral,” the figurative blindness is immediately apparent through the narrator and his shallowness, irrational jealousy, and egotistical personality. His dismissive behavior and ignorance towards the feelings of Robert, his wife’s blind friend, speak negatively of his character and reveals his insecurities. While the narrator’s emotional blindness and Robert’s physical blindness initially inhibits their bond, it eventually leads the narrator to an epiphany and the beginning of a character transformation. The different forms of blindness allow the characters to bond and grow over the course of the story.

It is easy to judge individuals based on our crooked misconceptions. Sight is a useless physiological sense if one is unable to view/perceive things on a deep, meaningful level. Due to this, individuals tend to allow other relationships to trigger personal insecurities within. One must be capable to share a vision with others to achieve enlightenment and self-awareness. In “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, the author utilizes various rhetorical devices to convey the importance of perception and sight.

Furthermore, the title of the short story has symbolic representation to the transformation the narrator partakes as the story ends. Specifically, when the narrator begins to explain the cathedral on the TV and is unable to describe it with detail to Robert, shows how blind he is even though he is able to look at the things show in the program. In the short story, Robert suggests to the narrator to work together on drawing a cathedral to better illustrate it. As both hold on to the pen and trace the cathedral unto the piece of paper bag, Robert is able to visualize it in his mind; the narrator, on the other hand, gets to a point in his life where he realizes that he is now able to see, rather than just look at something, and is able to understand its meaning, as he states “it was like nothing else in my life up to now…my eyes were still closed.” Here, the narrator recognizes that even though his eyes were closed, as if he was blind, he is able to tell how immensely and detailed cathedrals are.

299). This shows that the narrator doesn’t know too much about the blind and is very stereotypical of them. The blind man and the narrator soon get together in which the narrator is asked to draw a cathedral with his eyes shut. Not only does he close his eyes, he keeps them closed after finishing the drawing. “My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything” (Anthology pg.311). This line said by narrator makes the reader believe that he may take things for granted and may just go about his day without noticing much.

Many people make an assumption they are not blind to life itself whether ignorance plays a part or pride. In Cathedral by Raymond Carver, it describes a few myths that society has portrayed and opinions of the visual impaired. The main focus is getting to know the person before drawing a conclusion. Its not fair to anyone to be neglected whether you are visual impaired or have the functionality of what is considered to be a normal human being.

People who are blind face many different problems in accomplishing everyday activities and becoming an independent individual. Some are able to overcome this issue while others struggle through it in their lives. In “Helen Keller’s Address before the New York Association for the Blind, January 15, 1907” she makes an appeal to the audience that the blind should be helped and made independent so that they can stand up and support themselves. She uses pathos or emotionally packed words, examples and anecdotes and cites from a prominent source to convince her audience that the blind are not helpless, but they are in need of guidance from people who can see in order to live and thrive independently.

This educational movie leaves the important details of Helen Keller’s life because its goal is to make one feel uplifted instead of truly educating them, a tactic of Robert Greene’s soft seduction.

While looking at the same things, some people may perceive or “see” things differently. Henry David Thoreau quotes that “The question is not what you look at, but what you see”. In the poems “We grow accustomed to the Dark” and “Before I got my eye put out” by Emily Dickinson and “Musée des Beaux Arts” by W.H. Auden, the authors share the idea that our vision reflects the true beauty of the world. Through the eyes of people,

1) According to Dillard, lovers and the knowledgeable can see well. Yet she also suggests that those who are knowledgeable on a topic, such as people who have been blind from birth and can suddenly see (due to an opperation), can perhaps view more objectively the world around them, and see it in a way that those with vision from birth cannot. Infants, she says, can see very clearly, for they are viewing the world for the first time, and can observe the colors and the light with no prejudgments, but we forget this experience as we grow older, and only occasionally catch glimpses of this phenomenon.

In “Cathedral” by Raymond Carter, the narrator has his vision, but he does not truly see the world. The blind man lacks sight, but sees deeper meanings to life.

The act of looking is related to physical vision while the act of seeing involves an enhanced understanding of what it means to truly exist. In the short story “Cathedral”, the narrator is blind to appreciating the human experience until he meets a blind man who ironically becomes the one who teaches him how to see in a way he never knew how. The author Raymond Carver uses symbolism within this story to reinforce the theme of blindness, and the difference between looking and seeing.

The story “Cathedral” demonstrates that lack of sight does not necessarily prevent one from perceiving things as they are, or live their life to the fullest. In the story, a middle-age blind man, who is a friend to the narrator’s wife, and used to be her boss at one point, visits the narrator and his wife. The narrator has never interacted with blind people before, and all he knew about blind people was what he had seen on television. Blind people are stereotypically portrayed on television as slow moving, dull people, who never laugh. Based on this perception, the narrator was reluctant to meet the blind man and doubted whether they were going to connect. This is evident when the narrator states, “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (Carver 1).

Helen Keller was born normal, however, shortly after being born she suffered an illness that caused her to be both blind and deaf. There is a movie about Helen’s struggle called “The Miracle Worker”. There is also a story by Helen Keller with called “The Day Language Came into My Life”. Both the story and the movie, display how the miracles of language and learning allowed Helen to overcome many obstacles in her life. This essay’s purpose is to perform a literary critique of both the movie and the excerpt about Helen Keller. Anne and Helen’s characters, points of view, and situation show the constant struggle of the desire for more knowledge even though the odds are against her.