Raymond Chandler

having their own flaws. In both Cathedral, by Raymond Carver, and A Good Man Is Hard To Find, by Flannery O’Connor, the central characters are forced to deal with circumstances that change their beliefs about themselves and others. The authenticity of these two stories show you the dangers of ignorance and how you should live life the first time around. In Cathedral, there are two main characters. There is the husband, and a blind man named Robert. Raymond Carver details two polarizing…

At the end of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral”, The narrator and Robert sit down to draw a cathedral of their own. To us this may seem like nothing, but within the story, it’s has large significance. Throughout this story we are made to feel like the narrator is just a rude and judgmental kind of guy. At each twist and turn in the story he is always there to add a harsh comment, usually towards his wife’s blind friend. One specific time can be noticed during a conversation with his wife about the…

Blindness and disability is a strong theme in literature. Raymond Carver penned the 1983 short story Cathedral in an anthology of the same name. The story centers on an unnamed narrator, who has a strong sense of dislike towards a blind friend of his wife’s. Throughout the visit of Robert, the blind man, the narrator learns more about himself and passes on a message of tolerance and understanding to the reader. Carver’s work was later published in Best American Short Stories, 1982. The majority…

“Fat” by Raymond Carver is the first short story in a collection called Will You Please Be Quiet, Please. Carver intrigued me because of his unique style of writing and captivated me from the first short story I read. This short story is a conversation between the narrator and her friend Rita, as she serves a fat man in the diner where they both work. The story, whilst seemingly is a ‘slice of life’ everyday mundane observation, slowly becomes more uncomfortable and unsettles dark secrets that…

The use of marijuana is introduced in the short story, we experience how the two characters interact and open up to each other. While smoking the joint together, the narrator is amazed by the fact that even blind men can smoke, “like he’d been doing it since he was nine years of age” (Carver 45). The narrator eventually comes to the conclusion that visual impairment does not prevent a man to be the same as him but rather everything is somehow similar. However, he raises that his better half’s…

“Cathedral” is a story about a man’s changing views, based on a growing and learning experience that he faces throughout the story. The man’s speech on his wife about her initial contact with the blind man begins passively: her job to work for the man is simply a job, nothing more. The narrator grows a rapid jealousy and resentment, following the event where his wife allowed the blind man to touch her face, although his initial reaction to reading the poem about the event is blank and unmoving,…

R.K.Narayan’s ‘Talkative Man’-A Mini Novel of Many Characters: A Study A. Phaniraja Kumar Abstract: Talkative Man is a short novel based on a man’s life in his struggle to make his reputation as a renowned journalist(TM) in the well-known modern town of Malgudi. It also describes the charisma of born flirt Dr. Rann and his Home Guard wife, Sarasa. In this novel R.K.Narayan focuses on characters rather than incidents. It is an entertaining read with humorous moments juxtaposed…

Looking But Not Seeing. Appreciably, blindness is a dominant theme woven through the garment of the “Cathedral” story by Raymond Carver. One is taken aback by the utter rawness and cold attitude exhibited by the narrator about the blind man. The narrator loudly wonders on who could dare attend a little wedding between Robert, the blind man and his sweetheart Beulah and further states that he does not have any blind person as a friend. As the story develops, one thing becomes certain that the…

Acceptance is key, and, under no circumstances can you know what a person may hold for your future. The narrator in Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral" was not very accepting of his wife contacting the blind man named Robert with the help of tapes. When he came to visit the couple, the narrator, known as "Bub," was shocked to find that the stereotypes of blind men, which he learned by watching movies, were all false. Carver made Bub to be blind, not physically, but to what communication can…

We often find ourselves disagreeing with those that mean so much to us over the smallest things. Raymond Carver write's, " Little Things" and portrays a real example of a couple in a disagreement with symbolism. The symbolism allows the reader to have a visual of people who are together that find some of the smallest things to argue about that turns into something much bigger. Carver does a good job of showing the repercussions when the smaller things get to someone rather than letting it go.…