Essay about First-Person Narration Techniques in "Cathedral"

The narrator quickly falls out of the conversation; however, he highlights that even though he does not enjoy Robert’s presence, he does not want to be perceived as rude by him. He explains how every “now and then [he] joined in [the conversation. He] didn’t want [Robert] to think [he’d] left the room.” By listening to the chatting between his wife and Robert, the narrator begins to think of Robert as a “blind jack-of-all-trades,” and he starts to feel jealous of the relationship that his wife and Robert share. The main reason behind the narrator’s resentment is due to his lack of a healthy relationship with his wife; the narrator even points out how he “waited in vain to hear [his] name on [his] wife’s sweet lips [during her conversation with Robert]...But [he] heard none of the sort.” The palpable tension between the couple along with the discomfort that Robert creates causes the narrator to feel out of place in his own home.

An example of this is in the beginning of the story when she states “I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes.” (Perkins-Gilman, 1899). This shows that the narrator does not know why she feels or thinks the way she does sometimes. This may indicate to the reader that she is not the most reliable person. The reader can know this also by seeing how her feelings towards things change so rapidly. First, she hates the yellow wallpaper. She says “The wallpaper, as I said before, is torn off in spots, and it sticketh closer than a brother- they must have had perseverance as well as hatred,” “But I don’t mind it a bit- only the paper.” (Perkins-Gilman, 1899). She shows complete opposition but as time goes by, it changes. Later on, she states, “I’m getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper, perhaps because of the wallpaper.” (Perkins-Gilman, 1899). According to the narrator, she is starting to feel better due to the wallpaper and she is fascinated by finding new things about the patterns she likes about the

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

The narrator is a characterized representation of society, and how society can change when immersed in deviant lifestyles. According to Kirk Nesset (1994), “Still, Carver implies, it is through our collaboration with others that we free ourselves from the slavery of self-absorption” (para 30). This means that

In Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” the narrator is seen to show ignorance and bias towards blindness throughout the story, however towards the end he realizes his flaws and the difference between looking and seeing. From the beginning of the story to the end you can see a change within the narrator after his encounter with the blind man. At the end of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” the narrator hopes to accomplish a change in his understanding of himself, and his experience with Robert flickers this change towards the end of the story.

Carver portrays the personality of the narrator in "Cathedral" in his use of conversational and colloquial tone. Carver’s syntactic maneuvers deliver a tone that is mocking, unpleasant and even vitriolic. He hyphenates the narrator’s interjections to convey a sarcastic quality of the narrator. For example: as the narrator is describing the sensitive situation of Beulah’s death, he does so with a taste of wickedness: "After they had been inseparable for eight years--my wife 's word, inseparable--Beulah’s health went into rapid decline" (Norton 30). The hyphenation permits the narrator to present his hostility and mockery into any part of the story; thus, the narrator feels that his opinions and asides are more important than the plot. Throughout the story, he displays a dislike for many seemingly

From the start, author Raymond Carver, expresses the narrator’s selfishness by his inability to understand others thoughts and feelings. This is a major factor indicating his overall blindness. In the beginning of

Literature has the potential to act as a mirror by presenting people’s lived experiences, expectations, and perceptions through characters. Such is what can be deciphered through the analysis of different characters in Raymond Carver’s story “Cathedral.” This paper focuses on the narrator of the story portrayed by the author as blind, which is used metaphorically not to imply physical blindness, but the inability to have reasoned judgment others referred to as lack of emotional intelligence. The presentation of the narrator, as a fallible individual, contributes to the development of the theme and plot of the story because, through them, the reader can learn about other

In the page, Carver develops the lady as an angry and frustrated person throughout the entire page, especially form the second through fifth paragraph. In the second paragraph,

Carver’s minimal language allows readers to easily tune in to the feelings of the characters as events take place. “Carl’s planning on me going, the boy said. We’ve planned it. That’s not the point and you know it, the girl said.

To emphasize the baffling aspects of the piquant moments in the short story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, the author relates in the story by using first person narrator. The anonymous narrator is narcissistic; anxious only with how the little stay from Robert will imitate him. He is also envious of how would be the relation of his wife and Robert will be in the past. The narrator also seems to lack self-awareness. He feels sorry for Robert’s wife, Beulah, because her husband wasn’t able to admire her beauty, never understanding that he doesn’t really know his own wife notwithstanding the fact that he can see her. The narrator is not a very good storyteller too, putting his narrative together ineptly, with rough switches and defensive disruptions.

Carver describes the rooms and the physical environment that his characters inhibit in order to paint a picture. In his stories, the settings influence the theme and the actions of the characters. For example, the setting in the Popular Mechanics, was very dark; the author writes about snow that is not only dirty on the outside but on the inside as well. This directly correlates to the characters emotional status at that particular time in their relationship. The character’s relationship at one point resembles the white snow, which is perfect, pure and without impurities. Then as their relationship begins to end it becomes like the snow outside, dirty not only on the surface but on the inside as well.

As his wife begs him to be kind to her friend, he says, “I don’t have any blind friends.” (273) Most of the dismissiveness we see within the main character is his lack of understanding of the relationship his wife can share with this “blind man.” This changes towards the end of the story as he spends one on one time with Robert while his

In the short stories that Carver wrote he hardly ever told the readers how the characters felt he simply showed them what they were going through and the feelings followed. Carver doesn't set the tone for you right away in all of his stories, one can assume that it might have a dark turn eventually because of Carver's works but not just based off the writing itself. In the book Shortcuts the short story “Lemonade” he writes “ “He goes on to tell me Jim Sr. ’s wife took him to thirteen foreign countries in Europe in hopes it’d help him get over it. But it didn’t. He couldn’t.” (pg. 616) Carver uses this sentence to show you how upset Jim Sr. was about losing his son, who drowned in a lake, it did not just simply say he was grieving, it showed you

From the opening line of Carver’s short story, the Narrator gives off the impression to the reader that he does not have any connection to his self-perceived antagonist, Robert, and has a very little opinion of him because of his physical disability.. It isn’t until Robert comes to his home, his wife guiding him into the house, that we see the narrator take pause. “He also had this full beard. But he didn’t use a cane and he didn’t wear dark