I fear this essay may come off a bit choppy due to the fact that while reading “The Cathedral” by Raymond Carver I had a lot of different questions and thoughts running through my head. The first thing I noticed was that the narrator never really uses names and that confused me. Making the story difficult to navigate and raising the question‚ why leave character names a mystery until later? What purpose does it serve? We never learn the names of the narrator‚ the wife or the officer‚ most of the
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In “A&P” by John Updike and “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver‚ the protagonist faces an initiation moment that awakens him to a new reality. Sammy‚ the narrator in “A&P”‚ is distracted by three barefooted girls in bikinis who walk into the grocery store. The settings for “A&P” and “Cathedral” both take place in one location‚ but in their paces are different. “A&P” has a very quick pace in which the girls come in‚ he observes them‚ and he quits. However‚ in “Cathedral” the blind
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During the beginning of this course‚ we read several works of literature‚ one being the “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver‚ An American short-storyteller and poet. The narrator in this story realizes the capability he has of focusing on something that has never been important to him. The story leaves us with a small sense of optimism that the narrator will change the way he views his life. Because the blind man was not an important person to the narrator‚ the narrator made his own impression of him. This
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The narrator of the story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver has never met someone who was blind until Robert came to visit. Robert has been a friend of the narrator ’s wife for the past ten years and is spending the night because he has not seen her for such a long time‚ but this bothers the narrator. He does not regard a blind man as a normal person with whom he can relate with‚ and is extremely uncomfortable with the idea of having to socialize with one for an entire evening. The narrator is stereotypical
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Aicha Bah 1555558 Bah 1 Beverly Fraser Effective Reading and Writing 603-101-MC Friday October 30th‚ 2015 Cathedral In the short story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver‚ the author represents that physical appearance and personality are two different things through the characters actions. The unnamed narrator and his wife don’t know each other intimately although they live together. Consequently
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“Cathedral” by Raymond Carver is set in 1983 in the narrator’s house somewhere In New York. The story starts with the narrator telling us about his wife’s old friend that was blind. The narrator tells us about how the blind man’s wife had died. The blind man then contacted the narrator’s wife. Arrangements were made and then the blind man was coming to spend the night at the narrators house. He would come to New York from his in laws in Connecticut by a 5-hour train ride. The blind and the wife always
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The story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver is about one man’s understanding and acceptance of a blind man. The narrator represents the story’s dominant theme of overcoming prejudice of the blind through personal experience as well as mutual respect. The narrator‚ who remains nameless‚ holds deeply unfounded beliefs and stereotypes of what a blind person should be‚ yet over a relatively short period of time he develops a bond with the blind man‚ whom at first he privately mocked. The narrator’s preconceived
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Cohoon1 Shanna Cohoon Mr. Robinson English 1006r November 21st‚ 2012 Robert’s effect on the narrator “The Cathedral” is a short story written in 1963 by Raymond Carver. “The Cathedral” includes three characters: the narrator‚ the narrator’s wife‚ and a blind friend of the wife’s‚ Robert. Robert has an effect on the narrator from the very beginning but the effect changes as the story develops. At the beginning of the story‚ the narrator is very bitter about his wife’s blind friend. As the story
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Raymond Carver Raymond Carver is an award winning short story writer and poet. Carver’s famous writing career started with publishing a collection of poems. During his career as a writer he also published some famous short stories which helped define Carver as a minimalist writer. A minimalist writer makes “do with less‚ the literary equivalent of functionalist architecture. It offers an art of elimination‚ an effort one can associate with creating boundaries around private pain and avoiding public
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The Blind leading the Blind In Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” a blind man (Robert) opens the eyes of the narrator that is blinded by ignorance. In the beginning of the story the narrator points out numerous faults of the other characters. This would lead the reader to believe that the narrator has it all together. It is soon discovered that behind the narrator’s ignorant accusations there is a plethora of blindness‚ ignorance‚ and jealousy. Robert is really the most capable person in this story even
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