Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral”, is from the view of a first-person narrative about a man who is unamused by his wife’s blind friend coming to stay in their home. His wife received a summer job ten years ago with this blind man, Robert. Over the years the two communicate through tapes, telling each other how their lives have changed since they had last seen each other. Throughout the story, the narrator is insensitive toward the connection that his wife and the blind man have. In this essay, I will discuss the narrator’s characteristics of self-absorption and jealousy leading to realization, which relates to how Carver’s use of dirty realism is influential to the obstacle that can be faced with blindness.
The narrator comes across as self-absorbed …show more content…
“[He] tried to explain to the blind man what was happening” (pg.10) on the screen. He flipped through channels until he finds one about cathedrals. The readers are given a description of what the narrator is seeing on the TV. The narrator “waited as long as [he] could. Then [he] felt that [he] had to say something” (pg.10). This reveals to the reader that although the narrator does not really like Robert, he is making an effort to create a bond making Robert feel welcomed. As the conversation goes on the narrator asks Robert, “do you have any idea what a cathedral is?” Robert replied that all he knows about cathedrals is that they took hundreds of people and years to make. I found it interesting that in this section of the short story, I interpreted what Robert says (“they’re no different from the rest of us, right?” (pg.10)) as if he is comparing the work ethic in those Roman times to the present day. Robert reveals that this is really all he knows about the cathedrals. He asked the narrator if “maybe [he] could describe one to [him]?”(pg.10). The narrator agrees and tries to describe the cathedral to Robert. Before he brings his explanation to Robert, he questions how he is going to do this, he says he will act as if “my life depended on it. Say my life was being threatened by an insane guy who said I had to do it or else” (pg.11). When I believed that the man was making a connection with Robert, he acts out by making readers question his integrity and also his personality. The narrator seems to have various mood swings throughout the story. These ‘swings’ seem to happen once Robert and himself are starting to form a friendship. Their developing friendship shows aspect of realism in the story when Robert and the narrator connect through the use of alcohol and marijuana. The drinking lightens the narrator's mood, allowing
The narrator comes across as self-absorbed …show more content…
“[He] tried to explain to the blind man what was happening” (pg.10) on the screen. He flipped through channels until he finds one about cathedrals. The readers are given a description of what the narrator is seeing on the TV. The narrator “waited as long as [he] could. Then [he] felt that [he] had to say something” (pg.10). This reveals to the reader that although the narrator does not really like Robert, he is making an effort to create a bond making Robert feel welcomed. As the conversation goes on the narrator asks Robert, “do you have any idea what a cathedral is?” Robert replied that all he knows about cathedrals is that they took hundreds of people and years to make. I found it interesting that in this section of the short story, I interpreted what Robert says (“they’re no different from the rest of us, right?” (pg.10)) as if he is comparing the work ethic in those Roman times to the present day. Robert reveals that this is really all he knows about the cathedrals. He asked the narrator if “maybe [he] could describe one to [him]?”(pg.10). The narrator agrees and tries to describe the cathedral to Robert. Before he brings his explanation to Robert, he questions how he is going to do this, he says he will act as if “my life depended on it. Say my life was being threatened by an insane guy who said I had to do it or else” (pg.11). When I believed that the man was making a connection with Robert, he acts out by making readers question his integrity and also his personality. The narrator seems to have various mood swings throughout the story. These ‘swings’ seem to happen once Robert and himself are starting to form a friendship. Their developing friendship shows aspect of realism in the story when Robert and the narrator connect through the use of alcohol and marijuana. The drinking lightens the narrator's mood, allowing