Raymond Chandler

The Cathedral of St. Raymond Nonnatus Almost every Sunday during my youth was spent at church with the family. On many occasions, we were simply up the road at the local Catholic Church but the most memorable moments that I can recall are the ones spent with family at the Cathedral of St. Raymond Nonnatus. I had always wondered why it looked the way it did until my continuing education later in life. This a very structurally beautiful building and it acts the part of worship and school all…

Ignorance is the worst form of blindness. In the short story, “Cathedral,” Raymond Carver creates a dynamic character who is judgmental and lacks insight, but ironically, a blind man soon helps him see. This character, never actually given a name, is also the narrator. Carver’s decision to withhold his name is intriguing since he gives the blind man a name, Robert. The narrator in “Cathedral” himself produces an antisocial, prejudiced personality for others to interact with, but shows the…

The protagonist in Carver’s “Cathedral” also serves as the narrator. The man although nameless reveals to us (the readers) who he is throughout the story. We see many ranges in this character, he shows us that he is jealous, narrow-minded, self-centered, and even prejudice. Also even though he is not described as being blind himself, he does seem to be blinded to his wife’s thoughts and feelings, as well as to things he does not understand. The main character lacks intimacy, and seems to be…

Raymond Carver wrote “Cathedral,” the cathedral represents true sight, the ability to see beyond the surface to the true meaning that lies within. In “Cathedral” we encounter the narrator who thinks of his wife’s friend as nothing but a blind man. For he is a petty, jealous man… he does not care to meet any man whom his wife has connected with in the past. Although he is staying with him and his wife, he will speak to him anyhow. Robert will change the narrator’s way of thinking and seeing…

He’s not dead, he’s sleeping forever: Characterization in “A Small, Good Thing” In “A Small, Good Thing”, Raymond Carver describes the events of a small boy, Scotty, getting injured and being hospitalized. His parents, Ann and Howard, then need to internalize the situation each in their own way until they finally accept Scotty’s death after meeting with a baker that has been giving the parents foreboding calls. Carver uses characterization in “A Small, Good Thing” to convey the idea of how Ann…

In Raymond Carter’s story “Cathedral”, the narrator's wife invites a blind man, named Robert, over to her and her husband’s house because his wife, Beulah, recently passed away. The narrator was not too excited about Robert’s visit because he was not sure how to interact with a blind man. However, throughout the story, the narrator undergoes a major transformation. He begins to perceive a new outlook on Robert and even blind people in general. The theme in this story is the difference between…

In many of Raymond Carver’s short stories and Edward Hoppers paintings a multitude of connections can be made with between the two. Alcohol typically plays a key role in Raymond Carver’s short stories. This tends to lead to isolation of characters due to some degree of alcoholism. Within a majority of Edward Hopper’s paintings there is the presence of solitude, which gives a depressive mood to his paintings. Similar to Carver’s short stories, there are characters who are isolated by the…

In the short story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, the narrator uses sight to make himself feel superior to Robert as he is threatened by Robert's ability to make deep connections however, this hinders the narrator's ability to connect with people as he is not able to see below their superficial attributes. Because of his insecurity and lack of understanding, the narrator is constantly criticizing and making Robert, the blind man, feel inadequate. This is because the narrator feels threatened by…

Roger Chillingworth is the major blockade inhibiting Hester Prynne from discovering contentment in her life. Initially, it is effortless to sympathize with the old man, seeing as the first thing he witnesses when he arrives in Boston is his duplicitous wife on the scaffold. He is first described as scholarly, yet deformed, “There was a remarkable intelligence in his features…a seemingly careless arrangement of his heterogeneous garb, he had endeavored to conceal or abate the peculiarity…one of…

In Raymond Carver's "Cathedral", the narrator seems to have a small minded approach towards life. In the beginning, the narrator ridicules his wife's past lover, and Robert's (the blind man's) wife, Beulah. When the narrator begins to explain the story behind Robert's wife, he states that there wedding "was a little wedding—who’d want to go to such a wedding in the first place?—"( page 3). In this, the narrator is seen to be negative and bitter towards Robert. Similarly, the narrator ridicules…