Introduction The conventional Westernized notions of knowledge and power is that knowledge is something that comes from the mind, and power is within the individual’s will. These notions are challenged within Alma Luz Villanueva’s “Crazy Courage,” Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” and Nathanial Hawthorne’s “The Birth Mark.” In each of these literary works, it is implied that intellectual knowledge – that is knowledge that comes from the observation of outward, physical appearances – is not what is real. True knowledge comes from intuition and the unseen. Power in each of these literary works is presented as something that is beyond individual will. It rests outside of each person and stems from the collective life experience. In each of the works,
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This not only serves as a powerful reminder to the reader of the strength of our sense of ourselves as children, but implies that society does not want us to live our truths. Societal conventions and expectations are limiting and do not allow a person to be whole; everything that he or she is. Michael is someone who is whole – he displays both his feminine and masculine natures. Societal conventions state that a person must display as either feminine or masculine to be accepted and not face exclusion. In these closing lines, Villanueva also uses irony with the word innocence. It is ironic since truth and wholeness is present within childlike “innocence” before society’s “knowledge” and constraints mask the entire …show more content…
Robert tries to describe what a cathedral is and what is contains to a person who has never seen what he is describing. The blind man does not have a reference to Robert’s descriptions of reality. It is only when the blind man instructs Robert to close his eyes and draw a cathedral from his inner self that Robert is able to discover what is real. In a sense it is the blind man who is guiding Robert to the truth. When he is finished, Robert chooses to keep his eyes closed when acknowledging that he has been able to finally describe what a cathedral is. The most telling phrase in the work is when Robert states to the reader “my eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything” (Carver 504.). What the character is saying to the reader is that he is no longer boxed in by a concrete definition. The truth is something he has found within himself, without concrete, visual constructs or appearances. In other words, the truth cannot be found in what one
This not only serves as a powerful reminder to the reader of the strength of our sense of ourselves as children, but implies that society does not want us to live our truths. Societal conventions and expectations are limiting and do not allow a person to be whole; everything that he or she is. Michael is someone who is whole – he displays both his feminine and masculine natures. Societal conventions state that a person must display as either feminine or masculine to be accepted and not face exclusion. In these closing lines, Villanueva also uses irony with the word innocence. It is ironic since truth and wholeness is present within childlike “innocence” before society’s “knowledge” and constraints mask the entire …show more content…
Robert tries to describe what a cathedral is and what is contains to a person who has never seen what he is describing. The blind man does not have a reference to Robert’s descriptions of reality. It is only when the blind man instructs Robert to close his eyes and draw a cathedral from his inner self that Robert is able to discover what is real. In a sense it is the blind man who is guiding Robert to the truth. When he is finished, Robert chooses to keep his eyes closed when acknowledging that he has been able to finally describe what a cathedral is. The most telling phrase in the work is when Robert states to the reader “my eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything” (Carver 504.). What the character is saying to the reader is that he is no longer boxed in by a concrete definition. The truth is something he has found within himself, without concrete, visual constructs or appearances. In other words, the truth cannot be found in what one