The Order of Things

The main character or narrator in the Cathedral was not only jealous of the relationship between his wife and her friend (the blind man); moreover, he had not seen him in person and did not appreciate the idea that he was actually spending the night at their house. However, after the narrator’s encounter with Robert, he perceives that he was not what he expected him to be; instead, he was gentle and friendly. On the other hand, the main character or narrator in everyday use was outspoken and straightforward, explaining about her surroundings and what had transpired in her life. From harsh labor to the different circumstances, she had faced in her lifetime; she also talks about her daughters who had different personalities.

In Raymond Carver's "Cathedral," the husband's view of blind men is changed when he encounters his wife's long time friend, Robert. His narrow minded views and prejudice thoughts of one stereotype are altered by a single experience he has with Robert. The husband is changed when he thinks he personally sees the blind man's world. Somehow, the blind man breaks through all of the husband's jealousy, incompetence for discernment, and prejudgments in a single moment of understanding.

In the narrative, the author writes the story in first person point of view through an unnamed narrator which enables the reader to visualize, experience, and perceive a deeper insight into his mind. The story commences with the narrator speaking directly to the audience appearing closed-off and narrow-minded. His wife has an old friend named Robert, who happens to be blind, coming to spend the night. Right away, the reader can sense how the narrator comes off as self-absorbed. He`s only concerned about how Robert’s visit will affect him and is inconsiderate about the strong bond Robert and his wife have built over the years. The narrator also lacks self-awareness when he found himself thinking “what a pitiful life this woman must have led.” (Carver 3) The woman being Beulah, Robert`s recently deceased wife, who the narrator belittled as she married a blind man and now she “could never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one.” (Carver 3) Not realizing that with

“Cathedral” by Raymond Carver is a story that shows the sense of sight in relation to vision, but it shows that the sense of sight requires a much deeper engagement. The narrator, who Robert calls “Bub,” is astonishingly shortsighted or “blind” while the blind man is insightful and perceptive. Bub is not blind, but Robert is. Therefore, he assumes that he is superior to Robert. His assumption correlates with his idea that Robert is unable to make a female happy, nor is he able to have a normal life. Bub is convinced his ability to see is everything. So, he fails to look deeper than the surface and is why he doesn’t know his wife adequately. However, Robert sees much deeper than the narrator, although he cannot look at the surface. Robert’s ability to look deeper helps him understand through his listing and sense of touch. Throughout Robert’s visit, the narrator reveals he is closed minded and exposes how he views life in general. Bub is clobbered and it brings him to the epiphany that his views about Robert are actually a mirror image of how he views his life. His epiphany is shown through the author's use of appearance vs reality, irony, and vernacular dialogue; which shows Bub’s preconceived notations, the connection formed between Bub and Robert, and how out of obliviousness Bub gained insight.

Is then forced to get rid of his household goods to save Russell and continue on their journey. This is an example of Carl gaining the insight that he must give up some things to gain others. In this case, he gives up the remaining household goods that remind him of Ellie to save Russell. This is also a symbolic way of showing that Carl finally moves on from the pain of missing his wife, and can now move forward within his mental state of grief. As one ages, it is difficult for them to accept loss and gains. As Carl finally works up the courage to accept the change from his wife being gone, he gains the insight that just because she is no longer with him, doesn’t mean he shouldn’t move forward and adapt to his life without

But in “A&P” Sammy’s stereotype toward the girls does not seem to change yet. The husband in “Cathedral” who’s being having a hard time making any type of connection with people, looks like he already changing as he engaged more and more with the blind man. As the husband, his wife and the blind man sat down to talk, the husband hearing them talk about the past and what had happened during the past ten years, “jealousy” kind of got into the room as the husband is paying attention to their conversation, expecting his wife to mention his name, “I wanted in vain to hear my name on my wife’s sweet lips” “And then my dear husband came into my life”- something like that. But I heard nothing of the sort” (Raymond Carver 77), and this was not the first sign of jealousy expressed in the story “She'd worked with this blind man all summer. She read stuff to him, case studies… They'd become good friends my wife and the blind man. How do I know these things? She told me. And she told me something else. On her last day in the office, the blind man asked if he could touch her face. She agreed to this. She told me he ran his fingers over every part of her face, her nose--even her neck! She never forgot it… usually after something really important happened to her” (Raymond Carver 77). Clearly he is jealous, and so emphasizes the eroticism of the blind man's touch.

This is displayed even in the first line “She sits in the park. Her clothes are out of date.” The clothes are not only showing the change of appearance, but are used as a symbol for showing the small and large sacrifices that are made when having children. Because of her clothes you are able to identify the clear loss in vanity and pride that she has in herself. Not only does this line indicate this but when read in conjunction with the line “From his neat head unquestionably rises” it shows the juxtaposition of the two different lives of two ex-lovers. “His neat head” suggests that his well put together, acting as a symbol for who he is appearance wise. When looking at the adjectives that describe the women it clearly shows that both their lives are juxtaposing against one

In almost every story there is a meaning, whether that meaning is obvious or not is up to the readers’ interpretations. In some stories, that meaning hides behind a character, how that person acts, thinks, or express themselves and how they change throughout resembling growth. In Raymond Carver’s “The Cathedral”, the unnamed husband narrators the tale of his wife’s old blind friend Robert coming to visit after not seeing each other for years. They had remained in contact through audiotapes, but the husband seems to not understand the significance of their relationship, showing distaste with the visit for the majority of the story, due to his uncomfortableness. In this story, the writer displays his tale and its morals; by using the narration of the husband; Carver shows that there comes to be more meaning behind this bitter man that meets the eye, which argues the fact that perhaps this unlikable narrator is truly the antihero.

There was also a quote that stated, "Philippa had what are known as High Church proclivities, and took the matter seriously." This quote shows that they take church and religion seriously. Throughout the story, religion is talked about showing that the religion theme is extremely important to the narrator. Also in the story, you see that fasting and praying is a major part of their lives. Mr. Yeates also discussed how his wife was highly honored and always brought a gift with her. Lastly, Mrs. Knox praying for her family also shows that religion was important to these people. The next theme that was present is feminism because throughout the book the woman dominated the man, instead, of the man dominating the woman. You can see this in the beginning when the narrator talks about them dating for 5 years and Philippa, finally, giving him an ultimatum. The next example is when Mr. Yates said, "chiefly, I imagine, because I was a worm before her, and thankfully permitted her to do all the talking." Next, you can see this when Mrs. Knox and Mr. Hamilton had sometime gotten into a fight, and she would not go to church with him, but drove five miles away and go to another church, and the church they went to as a family was right in their back door. During this time period it was unthinkable for a woman to stand her ground against a man, and especially her taking the stance to not only go with him to church, but to go to another church on her own. I think it is pretty ironic, and funny that even though Mr. Yeates' wife dominated him, he defended his wife when needed. Love was a major theme because the story began with the narrator talking about getting married. Marriage is a big symbol of love because normally you do not get married if you do not love the other person. I think the theme love is a great theme for this story because they show their love

Deep down inside, each person has a strong desire for a companion. Someone you can trust, who you can learn from and teach, but most importantly, one who can always be there for you no matter what happens. The relationship between the intelligent and feeble George Milton and the imbecile, but vigorous Lennie Small is displayed as the main objective in Steinbeck 's novel, Of Mice and Men. The description among these two characters is a form of juxtaposition because the two characters vary in several ways. The author’s intention of using this technique points out the differences between characters and how their personalities counteract each other significantly.

In the short story “Cathedral”, written by Raymond Carver, the story is told through the narrator’s eyes as the audience gains insight on his perspective of his life and, more specifically, his views on his wife and her blind friend. The narrator’s name is never mentioned throughout the story, but his personality and initial narrow-minded bias towards his wife’s friend Robert depicts his character traits. Throughout the story he does not seem to change his views, but once he experiences Robert’s point of view in his life, the narrator changes his perspective. This suggests the narrator is a dynamic character in the story due to his change after getting to know Robert.

Her father is described as a neutral figure and her memory of him is hazy at best. This lack of a father figure led to Lily’s attitude towards men. Because of this Lily always denies herself suitable marriages because she always feels she can do better. Lily is conflicted between the man she loves and the man with money. She loves Seldon but she deems him too poor for her perfect marriage. After much thought, Lily decides to marry Peter Gryce who is exceedingly wealthy but is too late as he is already engaged at the time of her decision. Lily cannot decide between love and money both of which are important aspects of her life. She is unwilling to compromise between the two which eventually leads to her downfall. Lily needs to marry a man with wealth and a stable status in high New York society because she needs a source of income to supplement her own unstable wealth.

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

The woman has an intense love for her children and husband, which only adds further to her character depth. Granny Weatherall originally had an intense love for her fiance George, which later shifted to spite, until George jilted young Ellen Weatherall and left her at the alter. Luckily the love of her live, John, was there as Granny Weatherall fell into his arms. The love between John and Granny was apparent even in the beginning of their relationship as John “is, in short, the only man in the story who might have cursed and threatened to kill the faithless groom” due to George’s betrayal of Granny Weatherall (Meyers). Granny had an endless amount of love for John, and after John passed away the love she held for him never faded.

Never judge a book by its cover. This being said, in Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral,” there are three main characters; the narrator, his wife, and their guest of honor, Robert. He is visiting the narrator’s wife after the passing of his own beloved wife, Beulah. Prior to their meet, the Narrator, is terribly jealous of Robert. He has grown tired of his wife consistently talking about this blindman who she used to assist with his work. She tells the Narrator that before her second marriage, Robert placed his hands on her face and it was the most sensational feeling ever. His visit brings an unwelcoming comfortability for the Narrator. How can someone be so jealous of another’s friendship? Robert is the epitome of a short story character. He