Every story you read has an author behind it now how you interpret that’s up to you, but some authors have a completely different interpretation on their writing. Some authors hide deep meaning behind their writings that can be difficult to catch. Authors will use symbolism to tell a different story. When reading these stories you can understand what the author most of been feeling during this time. A period of their life could affect the way they write and you can see that as reader if you pick a part the story. Raymond Carver is a great example on how a period in his life affected his writing. Caver used is writing style where he was once wring very dark then later in life he switch to writing with stories with hope Carver was considered …show more content…
This is where readers can see a change in direction of the story where the narrators lets go of bitterness and lets out compassion. The narrator was having a hard time explaining the cathedral to Robert he even said to himself, I stared hard at the shot of the cathedral on the TV. How could I even begin to describe it? But say my life depended on it. Say my life was being threatened by an insane guy who said I had to do it or else.the only way he found to describe to Robert was by drawing it. When he takes the hand of Roberts and explains to him the cathedral. Even though the narrator can see the cathedral he can't describe it to Robert so he draws it with him the narrator can see it deeper significance. The act of drawing however the cathedral with the narrator's eyes close help himself look inside and understand the greater meaning. As a result of this the description of the cathedral takes on a human element. This frees the narrator and makes him truly able to see for the first time. The narrator just sat there with his eyes closed, but what yet what he see is bigger than anything his seen with his eyes open. The realization the narrator is not clear but says he,"didn’t feel like he was inside anything” this can be interpreted that he was weightless meaning at this point suggest the narrator was feeling epiphany. The drawing has opened a new door for the narrator. The redirection of this story was the turning point in Carver new writing tone since he sobering up.The breakthrough that the narrator had could relate to the breakthrough Carver had to quit his addiction. Most people are blind to the fact they have an addiction and it takes a breakthrough to get them to quick. Carver and the narrator were both ignorant that they had problems and it took something for them to get their breakthrough. The breakthrough that
Robert and the narrator are watching a television documentary on cathedrals, hence the title, and Robert asks “…maybe you could describe one to me?” (188), because he understands what the purpose of cathedrals is, but he has no idea what they look like. The narrator attempts to describe a cathedral, but he does not know how to “…even begin to describe it.” (188). The cathedral means nothing to him, and he admits to Robert that when it comes to religion: “’I guess I don’t believe in it. In anything. Sometimes it’s hard.’” (189). When Robert suggests that they draw a cathedral together, hand over hand, the narrator becomes nervous and cautious, he is unsure what do. After a little bit, the narrator became more comfortable and “…couldn’t stop” drawing (190). The narrator then closes his eyes to finish off the drawing, and at that moment with Robert, he metaphorically opens his eyes. He does not exactly know what happened, but he knows something positively changed, he felt like “it [was] really something.” (190). He has an out of body experience, “…I didn’t feel like I was inside anything” (190), an epiphany. Carver does not entirely explain the ending or what happens next, but one can be optimistic and assume that Robert changed the narrator for the better, by making him close his eyes to
While other may just quickly glance at the narrator’s paintings and not notice anything, Rockwell had always examined the narrator’s work in silence and noticed the subtle details of the narrator’s paintings. Because of Rockwell’s unconventionality, he is able to discern through the façade the narrator puts on and unveil his true identity. Unlike the other individuals who have scrutinized the narrator’s paintings, Rockwell began “frowning at a picture [the narrator] had made.” This illustrates his peculiar thoughts where he is capable of discovering something different from the narrator’s paintings of Sara. Rockwell is able to analyze the meaning behind the narrator’s paintings of Sara and eventually pry out the true meaning of his artwork. Rockwell represents the brutal, cold reality that the narrator must confront and accept. This is demonstrated through his honest, direct words as he tells the narrator that he is “doing [him] a favour by telling you this.” He wishes that the narrator will gradually begin to abandon his painful past and embrace the reality that he must end up confronting. Towards the end, even
Everyone at one point has judged a book by its cover. In the short story, “Cathedral”, Raymond Carver creates a narrator who bases off ideas and assumptions about blind people from movies. The narrator has never interacted with a blind person before the day where his wife invites her friend, who is named Robert, to stay. The narrator and Robert have never met, but the narrator has a strong dislike towards Robert before meeting. The narrator’s closed-mindedness and misconceptions leads him to judge Robert, however after a few hours of interaction, the narrator learns more about him and grows to have a new perspective about people not being who they think they are.
The Story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver is about true blindness and the effects of emotional contact. Peterson studies the use of determiners, a and the, that refer to the blind man in the story and its effects to establish the atmosphere of the story. He states that the change in determiner seems subtle, but these subtle changes are significant because the changes show how narrator feel about Robert throughout the story. Nesset studies the sexual polices and the love lives in several Carver’s stories. He discusses how Carver wrote his stories based on less of love and more of love withdrawal. Also Facknitz addresses rediscovery of human worth and the effects of emotional touch by discussing three short stories written by Carver. He analyses each narration of the narrator and comments based on psychological manner. The story “Cathedral” suggests the meaning of true blindness does not only refer to physical disability; it refers to those people who cannot see the world from other’s perspectives and it can be overcome through emotional contact.
Moreover, Carver uses first person point of view to describe the narrator’s life and the meaning of the cathedral to him. Through the first person point of view given to the narrator and one of the main characters of the story, Carver is able to portray a narrator who is jealous and insecure of himself. The narrator’s
Carver is well known for his short stories and poetries. Among his works, “Cathedral” is considered one of the best, favorite, and most optimistic and the most developed. Carver’s story revolves around the theme of seeing and looking. Most people believed they could not live without cathedrals which brought them closer to their God. Similarly, people place so much importance to the physical eyesight and tend to think they can hardly live without it. Robert, a blind man, is invited to the narrator’s home and the narrator is shown troubled by Roberts’s disability. Later on, the narrator is amazed to see the blind smoking despite having even thought of helping him with his drink earlier on (Carver 516- 524). The latter brought to attention that as much as natural looking is essential, more essential is the ability to see or to visualize things. The writer explains that it might be tougher to be without eyesight; however, it is possible to live without it and make the best of what else one has, more so the brain. Visualizing brings out a better view of the significance of life and things surrounding us.
Literary elements such as symbolism are found in almost any piece of writing. Symbolism is used to portray the deeper meaning of something by representing it with anything the writer chooses. In the short story, ¨Cathedral,¨ Raymond Carver uses many forms of symbolism to portray the different events and their meanings within his writing.
Say my life was being threatened by an insane guy who said I had to do it or else.” (Carver 43). This moment in story allows the narrator to finally try to comprehend the greater meaning of life by him closing his eyes and drawing a cathedral with Robert. This moment is a further showing of the narrator’s change, in the beginning he was bitter towards Robert due to his bias against blindness, but this moment allows him to understand Robert and show change.
First-person narration can provide an exotic and perhaps unreliable viewpoint. The narrator’s thoughts and feelings are conveyed more clairvoyantly than possible in third or even second person, an effect that develops a more intimate and relevant story to the reader. In "Cathedral," Raymond Carver uses conversational tone and diction to expose the narrator 's character: prejudicial at first, sympathetic by the end. Knowing his character simplifies the understanding of major components of the story such as the narrator 's hostility to Robert and his epiphany at the end.
The short story “Cathedral”, by Raymond Carver, is a thought provoking piece that focuses on the transition a man goes through to see the world with his soul. The story gives hope that people can change if given the chance to be better people. Over the course of the story, Carver uses both diction and description to explore themes in religion and morality.
The story follows the narrator and his wife who has invited her old friend to stay at their home because his wife has just passed away. The friend, Robert, is blind and the narrator’s wife worked for him as a reader ten years prior. They remained close and kept in touch by sending audiotapes to one another, recounting what was going on in their lives. Robert’s blindness makes the narrator uncomfortable and he does not look forward to his visit, even though it is quite important to his wife. The three spend a somewhat awkward evening together and the narrator become more comfortable with Robert as the night progresses and as his wife falls asleep. The narrator gains some compassion for Robert and attempts to describe what the cathedral on the
The short story “Cathedral” has a lot of growth and self discovery by the narrator. Goes from a prejudice or hateful character to a more understanding and sympathetic character. At the start of this story the narrator would not refer Robert by his name, but instead he just called him the blind man. This happens from the start of the book “This blind man, an old friend of my wife’s” (Carver 200).
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.
In the beginning of the story, the husband, who is the narrator of “Cathedral,” seems to be a very ignorant, uncaring man. Nesset wrote “Walled in by his own insecurities and prejudices, this narrator is sadly out of touch with his world and with himself, buffered by drink and pot and by the sad reality, as his wife puts it, that he has no ‘friends’” (Nesset 124). The narrator has no connection to himself or the outside world. He has no friends, as his wife points out, which goes to show he keeps to himself, but he still doesn’t fully understand who “himself” is, because he doesn’t have that connection to himself, thus leading to the drinking and drugs. He wasn’t used to change, so having a visitor come over to his house bothered him. The moment he saw Robert, the narrator began to change. When his wife pulled up with the blind man in the car and they got out of the car, he saw that Robert had a beard and he thought to himself, “This blind man, feature this, he was wearing a full beard! A beard on a blind man! Too much, I say” (Carver 35). The narrator had expected to see the blind man in the way they showed them in the movies, but now that his idea of who Robert was as a person was being challenged, the change started to appear. Robert, who is a static character, is very essential in the change of the narrator. It is because Robert is the way he is, his marrying of a colored woman, his travels around the
A first-person narration provides an interesting perspective on the main action of a story. A narrator can express his/her own thoughts and feelings, which in turn develops a more personal and relatable story to the reader. Raymond Carver often uses this literary point-of-view tactic in his short stories to reveal the traits of the narrator. In "Cathedral," Carver uses conversational tone and diction to reveal the narrator's character; which is prejudicial at first, but becomes empathic by the end. Knowing this narrator's characteristics facilitates the reader's understanding of major components of the story, such as the narrator's hostility to Robert, his loser-like sociality, and the climax of opening up to Robert.