Alcohol can mean many things to an author, and even more to the characters in their stories. There is no story where this is truer than in Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral”. Christopher Hitchens compared alcohol to a master/servant relationship in his book The Quotable Hitchens: Alcohol to Zionism, while Peter Flax claims that just about everyone in America has a drinking problem and that, without regard to reason, alcohol is never a good thing, in his article “The Drinking Problem You Already Have. In her article, “Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral”, Tracy Caldwell sums up “Cathedral” using historical, societal, religious, and biographical contexts, mentioning alcohol as being destructive to the narrator. In Carver’s story, Bub, the narrator,
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Before just about anything happens, Bub pours or drinks something. His dependency on alcohol surpasses that of an alcoholic in that he uses it in a ritualistic manner. Many people drink because of loneliness, heartache, unhappiness, the social situation dictates it, et cetera. Curiously, Bub does not fall into any of these categories. Delving past the surface of the problem, examining the explicit and over-use (22 drinks total) of alcohol in “Cathedral” may offer insight into Bub’s character, and perhaps allow one to better understand the story’s meaning. Although metaphors throughout the story give virtually everything a deeper meaning, for one reason or another, alcohol is often overlooked. Exploration is needed in order to clarify why alcohol is used—beginning first with Christopher …show more content…
It relaxes the mind as well as the body, successfully impairing the ability to function normally. However, it also creates a dream-like state of mind. This explains the end of the story. Alcohol allowed Bub to relax and take in what Robert was teaching him, and in the end, by putting himself in the blind man’s position, he was able to truly see for the first time by way of observing, rather than just taking everything at face value. After the cathedral is drawn, Robert tells Bub to “Take a look.” Bub responds by telling the reader, “But I had my eyes closed. I thought I’d keep them that way for a little longer. I thought it was something I ought to do.” Without the alcohol’s relaxation qualities, Bub’s inhibition would still have existed and the euphoric epiphany at the end would never have happened. However, Peter Flax continues on to say that due to these qualities, alcohol is never a good thing. This is something most would have a problem agreeing with, even though many of his ideas do correlate with “Cathedral”, as previously shown. Moving on, it is important to examine alcohol contextually in the story—something Tracy Caldwell does without
Before just about anything happens, Bub pours or drinks something. His dependency on alcohol surpasses that of an alcoholic in that he uses it in a ritualistic manner. Many people drink because of loneliness, heartache, unhappiness, the social situation dictates it, et cetera. Curiously, Bub does not fall into any of these categories. Delving past the surface of the problem, examining the explicit and over-use (22 drinks total) of alcohol in “Cathedral” may offer insight into Bub’s character, and perhaps allow one to better understand the story’s meaning. Although metaphors throughout the story give virtually everything a deeper meaning, for one reason or another, alcohol is often overlooked. Exploration is needed in order to clarify why alcohol is used—beginning first with Christopher …show more content…
It relaxes the mind as well as the body, successfully impairing the ability to function normally. However, it also creates a dream-like state of mind. This explains the end of the story. Alcohol allowed Bub to relax and take in what Robert was teaching him, and in the end, by putting himself in the blind man’s position, he was able to truly see for the first time by way of observing, rather than just taking everything at face value. After the cathedral is drawn, Robert tells Bub to “Take a look.” Bub responds by telling the reader, “But I had my eyes closed. I thought I’d keep them that way for a little longer. I thought it was something I ought to do.” Without the alcohol’s relaxation qualities, Bub’s inhibition would still have existed and the euphoric epiphany at the end would never have happened. However, Peter Flax continues on to say that due to these qualities, alcohol is never a good thing. This is something most would have a problem agreeing with, even though many of his ideas do correlate with “Cathedral”, as previously shown. Moving on, it is important to examine alcohol contextually in the story—something Tracy Caldwell does without