critic essay

Student Name
Professor Elliott
ENC 1102
8 October 2012
Analysis of an Argument The essay “A Narrator’s Blindness in Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” written by Bethany Qualls certainly failed to make an effective argument. Throughout the essay there are several instances where Bethany Qualls doesn’t consistently maintain her focus. Bethany Qualls makes a weak introduction and conclusion. The essay consistently has redundancy and contradiction, which makes her argument weak. Qualls argument was that the plot was not exciting and “the truth is nothing much happens” (43). The essay was all over the place and failed to consistently maintain her focus of proving that “Cathedral” was a story with no plot. The focus constantly switches throughout the essay. In one paragraph Bethany Qualls talks about how isolated the narrator is and then two paragraphs later the focus is shifted to the narrator “gaining empathy and forges a bond with Robert over the drawing of a cathedral” (45). Qualls never gives us concise evidence that the plot was uninteresting. In the essay, the shift of focus weakens the argument. The introduction of the essay explains some background information on the story “Cathedral”; the essay was supposed to be about “A Narrator’s Blindness” and instead Qualls talks about how the plot was disappointing and nothing much happens. The title doesn’t relate to the introduction in any way. The opening paragraph illustrates that the story’s climax was when they were drinking cocktails and smoking pot. The conclusion almost contradicts the title by saying, “The narrator’s view of the world is one filled with misconceptions that the visit from Robert starts to slowly change” (45). Leading up to the conclusion Qualls doesn’t give enough context on why she believes the narrator is closed-minded. The opening and closing take the credibility away from the argument of “The Narrator’s Blindness,” the essay fails to have a steady progression of well-supported arguments toward a strong conclusion. The essay was full of redundancy and contradiction to prove her argument was a failure. Qualls repeatedly used the word isolation to describe the narrator. Instead of using the same word, more explanation and facts from the story would have been more beneficial to prove the argument. Towards the end Qualls contradicted her own words, which pretty much made the essay take a dive for the worst. First, she states, “However even at the it isn’t clear just whether or how the narrator has changed” (45). One paragraph later Qualls states that; “The narrator’s visit from Robert starts to slowly change his view on the world” (45). These two statements from the essay make a great case for how the argument was not effective. “Cathedral” was most certainly not your average story with some exciting plot but Qualls failed tremendously on making an effective argument. At times in the essay the reader ponders the question of what point Qualls is trying to make here. The focus of the story was constantly shifted. The intro and conclusion were not very supportive of her argument. And finally her contradiction and redundancy led her argument off the cliff.

Works Cited
Qualls, Bethany. "A Narrators Blindness in Raymond Carver 's ‘Cathedral’" The Norton
Introduction To Literature. Ed. Allison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. New York: W.W
Norton & Co., 2010. 43-45. Print.

Cited: Qualls, Bethany. "A Narrators Blindness in Raymond Carver 's ‘Cathedral’" The Norton Introduction To Literature. Ed. Allison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. New York: W.W Norton & Co., 2010. 43-45. Print.