Throughout the story, the man is almost dazed, trying to savor the past and acting without a care. In the opening scene of the story, the man is drinking excessively and staring out of the kitchen window onto his lawn; his furniture is arrange in the yard as it was in the house. He even repositions the “nightstand and reading lamp on his side of the bed, nightstand and reading lamp on her side. His side, her side” (Carver 3). His actions and his thought process make it apparent that thoughts about the woman are having an impact on his mental state. He is being haunted by these memories of them. The man does not care when he is approaching his house and finds a boy and a girl wandering around his yard, testing his furniture. He greets them and
The Cathedral and Everyday use were both enlightening and intriguing stories. Written by two renowned authors and differs in numerous ways, set out to explain and disseminate its readers to dissimilar characters and themes. Whether fiction, non-fiction, there were meaningful lessons learned from reading both stories. The Cathedral is a story about two friends, a blind man Robert and his female friend who reunited after ten years, even though they communicated by sending tapes and poems. While Everyday use was a story about a woman who had two daughters, Maggie and Dee, with two different personalities. Maggie, who lives at home with her mom was shy and scar by burns she had sustained from a house fire, while her eldest sister
Otto von Simson, The Gothic cathedral: origins of Gothic architecture and the medieval concept of order (New York: Pantheon Books, 1956), 21-39.
The narrator has a natural creativity that when left idol drives he insane. She is forced to hide he anxieties and fears which ultimately drives her to insanity. Even though she keeps a journal writing is in particularly off limits. Creativity was forbidden to her, John constantly reminds her to keep it contained. She even writes: “He says no one but myself can help me out of it, that I must use my will and self-control and not let any silly fancies run away with me.” She longs for an outlet for her repressed mind, going as far as to keep the journal, the one the audience is now privy to. She often refers to the journal as her only source of solace. As her sanity deteriorates, her mind starts to imagine things. The wallpaper becomes her outlet for this creativity. She begins describing the mansion as haunted and starts seeing a woman in the walls. She describes this saying: “The dim shapes get clearer every day. It is always the same shape, only very numerous. And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don't like it a bit. I wonder-I begin to think - I wish John would take we away from here!” Her natural eventually becomes so repressed it drives her
I enjoyed reading “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver. The story is realistic, relatable, and meaningful. The main protagonist, Bub, is arrogant and superficial. Because of Robert’s intimate relationship with his wife, he does not like the blind man. To cover up the fact that he is jealous, he states that he never had a blind man in his house before and that Robert does not have the characteristics he thought blind people have. Robert does not wear glasses, has a beard and etc. On page 90 he says, “I always thought dark glasses were a must for the blind.” This shows that even before he met Bub, he already had some preconceived picture of Bub that hinders him from really getting to know the real Bub. However, towards the end of the story he seems
Being different from other people is difficult to deal with in life, yet, we judge people who are different from us. Robert, a blind man, from a short story called, “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver is a wonderful book and a life lesson story. Robert is a blind man who had a strong friendship with Bub’s wife. Bub is the husband and isn’t really that type of person anyone would get along with.Throughout the story bub wasn’t very fond of Robert because he would get jealous that his wife would be more interested towards Robert. Robert and bub’s wife were best friends before bub married her. Roberts personality was interesting and a person who you would want to know in life. Throughout the end of the story, Carver, the author, sends a heartwarming message to the audience that can change your view in things in life. In the story, Robert was very easy going, shady and creative.
The notion of possessing an intrinsic bias is introduced in Raymond Carver’s Cathedral. He highlights how perception can affect the way people interact and communicate with each other for the first time. In the short story, the narrator himself is blind to the emotions of the people around him and eschews any form of self-reflection until the very end. He is envious of the blind man, who shares an intimate relationship with the narrator’s wife. However, the blind man is depicted as insightful and personal. Carver discloses in Cathedral that Robert, the blind man, and the narrator’s wife had been exchanging audiotapes for years, sharing their experiences and difficulties with one another.
When the narrator first encounters the girl, his friend's older sister, he can only see her silhouette in the “light from the half-opened door”. This is the beginning of his infatuation with the girl. After his discovery, he is plagued by thoughts of the girl which make his daily obligations seem like “ugly, monotonous, child's play”. He has become blinded by the light. The narrator not only fails to learn the name of his “girl”, he does not realize that his infatuation with a woman considerably older than himself is not appropriate. He relishes in his infatuation, feeling “thankful [he] could see so little” while he thinks of the distant “lamp or lighted window” that represents his girl. The narrator is engulfed by the false light that is his futile love.
“It’s tragic to have sight but no vison”, Helen Keller. This quote applies to the story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver. The story about a sighted man who lacks vison, but encounters a blind man who has spiritual vison. In consequence of the encounter the narrator wakes up and realized he has been blind his whole life.
In “Alzheimer” Kelly cherry tells the story of a old man with Alzheimer. She is telling his story as he is coming home to what we expect to be his wife. This is a narrative poem in which we see this shell of a old man remembering bits and pieces from his house which seems to be the only thing that he remembers. The pieces are reveal piece by piece of the small things he remembers about his house. Even with all the things he remembers it won 't be enough to save this crazy old man. Cherry uses imagery, and diction to show a old man as he goes through the signs of Alzheimer, we see the terror he experiences as he comes home.
In “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, I found the difference between looking and seeing. Looking means just a single physical sight but seeing is not simple as looking. Seeing requires a deeper level of engagement. As narrator tells about Robert, the blind friend of his wife, who was about to visit their home. He has some negative thoughts about the Robert.
As the tale begins we immediately can sympathize with the repressive plight of the protagonist. Her romantic imagination is obvious as she describes the "hereditary estate" (Gilman, Wallpaper 170) or the "haunted house" (170) as she would like it to be. She tells us of her husband, John, who "scoffs" (170) at her romantic sentiments and is "practical to the extreme" (170). However, in a time
It is human nature to shy away from social situations that make us uncomfortable. Also, as a people with great pride, we often find it difficult to admit when we have been iniquitous, or to allow ourselves to be open to humbling experiences. Sometimes though, it is not entirely due to intolerance that we allow ourselves to make ill-informed judgments. Raymond Carver was a writer with some insight concerning these very ideas. In his short story, “Cathedral,” Carver uses a nameless narrator and his interactions with a blind man to illustrate how a lack of experience can lead to ignorance and thus prejudice. Through the development of this character,
Raymond Carver’s characters were considered to be very much like him: “’on the edge: of poverty, alcoholic self-destruction, loneliness” (Mays 32). His short story “Cathedral” is about a young couple, who have a visitor coming to stay with them. This visitor, Robert, is the wife’s friend, and he is blind. The narrator, the husband, has never met someone who is blind, was bothered by that. To him, being blind meant constantly needing help from others. His depiction of blindness was what he has seen in the movies. “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit… A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to,” he tells the reader (Carver 32). His wife on the other hand, was very happy to see her old friend. She had worked for Robert
During the opening of the story, the narrator recounts significant times in his wife’s life from just before she met him leading up to the main event of the narrative. Despite
Chartres Cathedral is one of the most significant achievements of all the historical architecture. Additionally, it is entirely preserved with its original details. The unique features of the cathedral are intact, and thus when one visits the place, he or she is likely to encounter the authentic architecture work as it was done many years ago. Chartres Cathedral symbolizes an atmosphere of awe and holiness (Katzenellenbogen, 2). As such, it was built for religious purposes. However, it attracts the nonbelievers as well. As a holy building, it has many glass windows to light the building. Due to its height, a double flying buttresses is used to support the high nave. The cathedral was the first building in history that used buttresses since it was considered as necessary for the peoples’ culture and as a sign of authority. It was built to reflect a symbol of power since the religious leaders engaged in politics too. The cathedral has many statuses that represent the Biblical aspects such as Elijah, Isaiah, John the Baptist, Jeremiah, and Simeon (Katzenellenbogen, 9). The standings portray the Christian faith that was used by the architectures while building the cathedral. The interior floor stands thirty-six meters high and is one hundred and twenty-eight meters wide. The sizes show how vital it is and it can host many peoples who visit for religious functions.