Cathedral by Raymond Carver
Cathedral
The short story "Cathedral", written by Raymond Carver, was first published in 1983. This short story deals with one main problem: Prejudices. The short story is about a man, the narrator, which wife is going to meet her old friends, Robert, whom is blind. At first the main character aren’t looking forward meeting the blind man. His sigh of being a handicapped is narrow-minded: “In the movies, the blind move slowly and never laughed” (ll. 8-9). Prejudices are something that has always existed and it’s a huge problem because it causes a lot of conflict between people. This is especially seen with undereducated people because they do not know enough about other people’s cultures or lifestyles and therefore draw assumptions based on unreliable sources such as movies and other types of media. The main character undergoes a progress throughout the story where he develops; first he is negative about the whole situation, afterward his eyes opens up. Who is really the blind one? This short story is dealing with two men, each with their handicap.
The short story takes place in an American suburb in present time. As mention before, the narrator is apparently quite insecure, narrow-minded and prejudiced. He does not like to see his wife having fun with Robert: “I saw my wife laughing as she parked the car. Just amazing.” (l. 47). It’s a first person narrator and the story is told through dialogue and the only way to understand what the characters are feeling is by analyzing their behavior and actions. For example when the narrator thinks “just amazing” do we see clearly that it’s bothering him that his wife is having fun and laughing with her blind friend and therefore he’s sarcastically and ironically by saying that it’s amazing. It seems that the narrator is socially incompetent and all the things he had heard of blind people he bases on things that he has heard from movies:” My idea of blindness came from movies” (l. 8). Also the fact that his wife is
The short story "Cathedral", written by Raymond Carver, was first published in 1983. This short story deals with one main problem: Prejudices. The short story is about a man, the narrator, which wife is going to meet her old friends, Robert, whom is blind. At first the main character aren’t looking forward meeting the blind man. His sigh of being a handicapped is narrow-minded: “In the movies, the blind move slowly and never laughed” (ll. 8-9). Prejudices are something that has always existed and it’s a huge problem because it causes a lot of conflict between people. This is especially seen with undereducated people because they do not know enough about other people’s cultures or lifestyles and therefore draw assumptions based on unreliable sources such as movies and other types of media. The main character undergoes a progress throughout the story where he develops; first he is negative about the whole situation, afterward his eyes opens up. Who is really the blind one? This short story is dealing with two men, each with their handicap.
The short story takes place in an American suburb in present time. As mention before, the narrator is apparently quite insecure, narrow-minded and prejudiced. He does not like to see his wife having fun with Robert: “I saw my wife laughing as she parked the car. Just amazing.” (l. 47). It’s a first person narrator and the story is told through dialogue and the only way to understand what the characters are feeling is by analyzing their behavior and actions. For example when the narrator thinks “just amazing” do we see clearly that it’s bothering him that his wife is having fun and laughing with her blind friend and therefore he’s sarcastically and ironically by saying that it’s amazing. It seems that the narrator is socially incompetent and all the things he had heard of blind people he bases on things that he has heard from movies:” My idea of blindness came from movies” (l. 8). Also the fact that his wife is