In the short story “Cathedral‚” by Raymond Carver‚ the narrator draws a cathedral with his blind guest and transforms from a narrow-minded‚ materialistic‚ and superficial individual to an individual who acknowledges the spiritual aspects of life and the lives of those around him. Before the egoist narrator meets the blind man‚ Bub is so closed-minded‚ jealous‚ and materialistic that he does not want to help someone in need and he does not empathize with the hardships others endure. However‚ after
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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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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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Analysis At the center of "Cathedral" is a significant irony: a narrator who ignorantly disdains blindness while being oblivious to his own limitations in sight. Of course‚ the narrator can see with his eyes but does not realize the limitations he has placed on himself‚ and how those prevent him from seeing or wanting anything greater in life. The story is ultimately about transcendence; that is‚ an existence beyond the limitations of physical things. What Robert has that the narrator lacks is
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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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English 102-BB 24‚ April 2010 Love? Raymond Carver was a short story writer who was born in the Pacific Northwest. He was a textbook editor‚ lecturer and teacher while writing. His stories featured some of his trademarks of‚ alcohol‚ poverty‚ and people in real life situations. Carver was influenced to write about these trademarks through experiences he had lived and influences that were brought upon him‚ like alcoholism and divorce. Raymond Carver and his father were alcoholics and had both
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