Raymond Carvers short story “Cathedral” is centered around a man, his wife and her blind friend Robert who comes to town to stay with them. The narrator holds himself high while treating his wife disrespectfully and judging Robert based on his disability. Carver shows the differences between the two men and how Robert ultimately awakens something in the narrator who he calls “Bub.” Conflict, characterization and irony are used by Carver to give life to the theme of this story which is seeing isn’t everything, you can deeply connect with someone without visuals. In this story, the author shows the readers that those who see can still be “blind”, and those who are limited in one right may still have those abilities- but in a different way. The
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The narrator, a man who can see fails to see much deeper than the surface. It’s evident he has a hard time connecting with his wife and he cracks jokes about Robert before his arrival. What he fails to see or understand intimidates him and he comes off with ignorance. Robert, a man who is limited in terms of abilities has a much easier time connecting with others despite being able to physically see them. Robert is able to break down the narrator’s tough exterior when he asks to draw a cathedral with him. At the end of the story when the two of them are finished drawing, irony is conveyed when Robert asks the narrator to open his eyes and inspect their drawing of the cathedral, “My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything. ‘It’s really something,’ I said” (Carver 46). This shows the irony in the situation by describing how he felt after attempting the task of drawing with his eyes closed like Robert. He lies and says the picture is “really something” without looking at it. In this moment the narrator is a lot like Robert who can’t see but has no trouble understanding others and the world around …show more content…
Facknitz irony is identified and described in a spiritual light. He says, “In the moment when the blind man and the narrator share an identical perception of spiritual space, the narrators sense of enclosure- of being confined by his own house and circumstances vanishes, as if by an act of grace…” (Facknitz 295). In this passage of the article he describes how the blind drawing of the cathedral connected Robert and the narrator. For a moments time they had the same agenda, to understand what the cathedral looked like, regardless if one of them had physically seen it and the other had not. The narrator chooses to keep his eyes closed after being given permission to open them and look at the drawing. He embraces this new feeling or space he has never experienced regardless if he has much to say about
The narrator, a man who can see fails to see much deeper than the surface. It’s evident he has a hard time connecting with his wife and he cracks jokes about Robert before his arrival. What he fails to see or understand intimidates him and he comes off with ignorance. Robert, a man who is limited in terms of abilities has a much easier time connecting with others despite being able to physically see them. Robert is able to break down the narrator’s tough exterior when he asks to draw a cathedral with him. At the end of the story when the two of them are finished drawing, irony is conveyed when Robert asks the narrator to open his eyes and inspect their drawing of the cathedral, “My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything. ‘It’s really something,’ I said” (Carver 46). This shows the irony in the situation by describing how he felt after attempting the task of drawing with his eyes closed like Robert. He lies and says the picture is “really something” without looking at it. In this moment the narrator is a lot like Robert who can’t see but has no trouble understanding others and the world around …show more content…
Facknitz irony is identified and described in a spiritual light. He says, “In the moment when the blind man and the narrator share an identical perception of spiritual space, the narrators sense of enclosure- of being confined by his own house and circumstances vanishes, as if by an act of grace…” (Facknitz 295). In this passage of the article he describes how the blind drawing of the cathedral connected Robert and the narrator. For a moments time they had the same agenda, to understand what the cathedral looked like, regardless if one of them had physically seen it and the other had not. The narrator chooses to keep his eyes closed after being given permission to open them and look at the drawing. He embraces this new feeling or space he has never experienced regardless if he has much to say about