Cathedral - This essay was an easy A. It was practical and well written. PDF

Preview

Summary

This essay was an easy A. It was practical and well written. ...

Description

Sirena 1 Diana C. Sirena A. Prof. Eun S. Kang English 103 September 20, 2017 Cathedral: An eye-opening story The short story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver is the perfect example of interaction between man versus self. The story, which takes inside the narrator’s home, is about the narrator’s dislikes about his wife’s blind friend. However, Robert’s maturity helps the narrator find the answers to his insecurities within himself. Even though the narrator can see, he is unable to see what is clearly in front of him; however, Robert’s inability to see helps him see things more clearly and deeper. In “Cathedral,” Carver argues that all narrator’s insecurities arise because of Robert’s visit and his struggles with himself and his wife.

Carver analyses “Cathedral” using the critical approach of New Criticism to identify and analyze why the narrator of the story fights with his own insecurities. "And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movies” (32). This admission from the narrator illustrates his close-mindedness and unwillingness to experience something new. The narrator is disassociated from himself, he sees the world through his times and the TV and movies itself. When his wife’s friend, Robert, shows up at the narrator’s house to visit, he is aware that he does not like Robert at all. “This blind man, feature this, he was wearing a full beard! A beard on a blind man! Too much, I say” (35). This quotes shows how much the narrator hates Robert when he saw him for the first time. It is like he does not want to know what is going on in the real world. Much of his personality defect is apparent in this quote. "Then I said, 'I'm glad for the company’” (39). This quote is a little sarcastic in a way because the narrator make

Sirena 2 sure to let us know that he does not have friends, and that he is not a social person at the beginning of the story. “You don’t have any friends,’ she said” (34). This quotes demonstrates that the narrator does not go out with friends, and he stays home most of the times. He most annoyed of Robert because he can also make his wife smile and talk with enthusiasm. “You look distinguished Robert,’ she said ‘Robert, it’s just so good to see you’” (36). In the story, the tone of the narrator’s wife in this quote is happy and enthusiasm. She kinds of lets the narrator know that she is happy and that she enjoys of Robert’s company.

In the story, the narrator implies that his relationship with his wife is on a thin line because they do not seem to enjoy each other’s company anymore. “If you love me,’ she said, ‘you can do this for me. If you don’t love me, okay’” (34). This quote shows that he does not do things for her. He might not be very romantic and do things that husband should be doing for his wife. His wife might be irritated with him because he is not a people’s person, someone who like to be around friends, so she might be worry about his interaction with her friend Robert. “I saw my wife laughing as she parked the car. She was still wearing a smile. Just amazing” (35). In the story, it is clear that the narrator and his wife does not share a romantic and happy marriage. This quote shows that his wife is enjoying Robert’s company, and that the narrator is amaze because she does not smile to him like she does with Robert. The narrator’s insecurities about his marriage arise when Roberts shows up because his wife gets devoted to her friend. “My wife finally took her eyes off the blind man and looked at me. I had the feeling she didn’t like what she saw. I shrugged” (36). This quote demonstrates how his wife gets easily mad with him, but she is sweet and pretty easy, and found to Robert, but not to the narrator. Throughout the story, the narrator shows how much is wife gets irritated by him and his actions as a man and husband. “Every night I smoked dope and stayed up as long as I could before I fell asleep. My wife and I

Sirena 3 hardly ever went to bed at the same time” (39). This quote demonstrates that the narrator and his wife do not sleep together for a while now. When a merry couple do not sleep together in the same it usually means that the couple does not have a stable marriage.

The visit of Robert makes the narrator insecurities about himself to arise because Robert is nothing like he thought he was. “He didn’t use a cane and he didn’t wear dark glasses. I’d always thought dark glasses were a must for the blind” (36). This quote support the argument that the narrator is somewhat indifferent to Robert’s blindness. The narrator states that he has “never met, or personally known, anyone who was blind” (36). The narrator does not know how to be in the same room as a blind man because he has never been around one. The narrator feels intimidated by Robert’s relationship with his wife as well. “I saw my wife laughing as she parked the car. She was still wearing a smile. Just amazing” (35). The narrator states that his wife does not see him like the loving husband that he is, but more like irritation and dislike at him when she looks at him. When I did go to sleep, I had these dreams. Sometimes I'd wake up from one of them, my heart going crazy” (39). This quote states that maybe the narrator was enlisted and probably has post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and it might be that he could be having nightmares about war when he sleeps. That could affect the way he acts with his wife because it might be that she does not know how to deal with that.

In “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver is a short story about the struggles of the narrator with his wife’s friend, and himself. Throughout the story, the narrator struggles with the visit of his wife’s friend, Robert, and the struggles with his own insecurities. Even though he was not blind, he could not see deeper like Robert. However, at the end of the story the narrator finds himself understanding Robert, and seeing what was right in front of him.

Sirena 4 Work Cited

O’Brien, Tim. “The Things They Carried.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, edited by Kelly J. Mays, shorter 12th ed., W.W. Norton, 2016, pp. 564-577. Kaplan, Steven. “The Undying Uncertainty of the narrator in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried” (1993). The Norton Introduction to Literature, edited by Kelly J. Mays, shorter 12th ed., W.W. Norton, 2016, pp. 577-581. Smith, Lorrie N. “The Things Men Do”: The Gendered Subtext in Tim O’Brien’s Esquire Stories (1994). The Norton Introduction to Literature, edited by Kelly J. Mays, shorter 12th ed., W.W. Norton, 2016, pp. 582-592....