In the short story, “Cathedral”¸ written by Raymond Carver, the narrator is a middle-aged man who is very judgmental towards a blind man, however, as the story develops, the reader comes to the realization that “[The blind man] sees how to get along with others... by contrast, the narrator, although sighted, does not see how his isolation damages himself, his wife, and their relationship (Bloom, 47).” This story has a biased view towards the blind man because it is told in the first person view from the narrator’s eyes, but as it progresses, his views on the blind man and his life change completely. (Bloom, 47)
“Cathedral” is a short story with many allegories throughout the story. In the story, the narrator, a regular married man, learns that …show more content…
The main focus of the story is a middle-aged man who comes to understand what it is like being blind. Even though the narrator had never met Robert, he had several ideas of what Robert, and all other blind people, would be like, saying “I remembered having read somewhere that the blind didn’t smoke because… they couldn’t smoke they exhaled. I thought I knew that much and that much only about blind people (Carver).” This quote shows the reader how the narrator’s view is clouded by the judgements of others, and not the truth. Eve Weiderhold, a feminist professor at George Mason University, believes that “the narrator’s wife, while married to a military officer, attempted suicide and that this act prompted her to contact Robert after she quit her job. Here, the narrator’s apparent lack of interest in talking about his wife’s suicide attempt would be of interest, particularly when exploring the text’s representation of gender (Weiderhold).” Personally, I disagree with Weiderhold on this matter because I believe that Raymond Carver is simply describing the life of the narrator’s life, and not that “Carver has followed the convention of using a female character as a material obstacle to overcome to enable a male protagonist’s intellectual epiphany (Weiderhold).” Weiderhold believes that Carver tried to use the narrator’s wife as a building block for the narrator’s prejudiced views. I think that his wife trying to kill herself has nothing to do with the narrator himself, and instead is more of a character development for the narrator’s wife (Weiderhold). I believe that the narrator is actually a representation of modern-day life and society. In today’s society, we believe anything that we read on the internet or hear from our friends. We tend to form an image in our minds about things, like blind people, but we include myths that we have heard. In the narrator’s
“Cathedral” is a short story with many allegories throughout the story. In the story, the narrator, a regular married man, learns that …show more content…
The main focus of the story is a middle-aged man who comes to understand what it is like being blind. Even though the narrator had never met Robert, he had several ideas of what Robert, and all other blind people, would be like, saying “I remembered having read somewhere that the blind didn’t smoke because… they couldn’t smoke they exhaled. I thought I knew that much and that much only about blind people (Carver).” This quote shows the reader how the narrator’s view is clouded by the judgements of others, and not the truth. Eve Weiderhold, a feminist professor at George Mason University, believes that “the narrator’s wife, while married to a military officer, attempted suicide and that this act prompted her to contact Robert after she quit her job. Here, the narrator’s apparent lack of interest in talking about his wife’s suicide attempt would be of interest, particularly when exploring the text’s representation of gender (Weiderhold).” Personally, I disagree with Weiderhold on this matter because I believe that Raymond Carver is simply describing the life of the narrator’s life, and not that “Carver has followed the convention of using a female character as a material obstacle to overcome to enable a male protagonist’s intellectual epiphany (Weiderhold).” Weiderhold believes that Carver tried to use the narrator’s wife as a building block for the narrator’s prejudiced views. I think that his wife trying to kill herself has nothing to do with the narrator himself, and instead is more of a character development for the narrator’s wife (Weiderhold). I believe that the narrator is actually a representation of modern-day life and society. In today’s society, we believe anything that we read on the internet or hear from our friends. We tend to form an image in our minds about things, like blind people, but we include myths that we have heard. In the narrator’s