The Stone Carvers

and lacks emotion when describing his wife’s past life and the blind man. An example of this is shown here, “His wife had died. So he was visiting the dead wife’s relatives in Connecticut. He called my wife from his in-laws. Arrangements were made” (Carver). The narrator’s tone is short and lacking emotion for the reason that in the beginning he is closed minded and has no zest for life. The narrator also sort of guides the reader through the story in the beginning, which Peterson explains in…

Can a person be gifted with perfect sight and yet still be blind? Raymond Carver attempts to answer this question in his short story “Cathedral” when he suggests two types of blindness: physical blindness which leaves one without visual perception and a narrow-minded blindness which causes one to fail to see the true side of people due to his or her stereotypical views and fixed opinions. In fact, in this story, a physically blind man happens to see more of the world, in a cognitive way, than a…

In this short reader's response essay I will simply describe or explain why I think, feel, or believe that the short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek" is the best from this week. I think the short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek” was the best from this week. This was the the best short story to me because it offers two different types of conflicts and it also has the best plot. It shows that the main character Peyton was experiencing issues within himself as well as with a few members of the…

dispute faced by people for many different reasons; these reasons include religion, race, ethnicity, physical and mental disabilities, and almost any kind of diversity in general. In the short story titled “Cathedral”, written by author Raymond Carver, Carver illustrates character growth of a protagonist through the our unnamed narrator – referred to as “Bub” by Robert – when he undergoes a transformative experience realizing he should not discriminate or judge Robert or other individuals based…

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 characters: the…

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 blind man’s late wife. “Was his wife a Negro?”(Carver, ), he asks. Not much compassion is expected from him as we make our way further into the story. While simply watching a cathedral on TV requires the use of actual vision, seeing and understanding…

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 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 robe has disappeared and this introduces…

“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,…