Her absence of emotions for him has been brought out in the way she behaves after her plane lands. Who knows’ arrival into the Dulles International Airport is marked by lateness, which she does not bother to offer any explanation or even an apology to her husband. The series of her unscrupulous behavior is continued when she settled into the house. The groom’s attempts to show her around the house and the intention of getting her to become acquainted with the surroundings are met with a cold shoulder. Who knows does not even show the slightest care for her husband’s feelings and plans, as she spent the day in bed chatting endlessly with a friend she met while on the trip to Washington.
His colleagues think he is boring because he does not go for a drink with them after work on a Friday, but this is the day he visits his mother at her home. There is no mention of a father. Did he leave at an early age or has he passed on? Does he feel guilty that his mother is in a home? He would love the job because he feels that his mother would
“ I thought back to times we’d sat still for afternoons , never moving a muscle, just shifting our weight along the ground, talking to whoever sat with us, watching things. He’d always had a joke, then, too, and now you couldn’t get him to laugh, or when he did it was more the sound of a man choking , a sound that stopped up the throats of other people around him” (Erdrich 112-113.) Lyman and Henry’s brotherly relationship had taken a turn for the worse. While Henry was gone Lyman purchased a television set for the family, which he he regretted not having when Henry started to watch it. “ He sat in front of it, watching it, and that was the only time he was completely still.
Despite the emotional and psychological disconnection, it is apparent that the narrator has some feeling. He recalls moments in detail and recollects the stories given to him by his wife with what seems to be great precision. However, the narrator is faced with quite the dilemma. When he begins to feel an appreciation for his wife he cannot express it, for he is trapped in the isolated and emotionless world which he created. The narrator’s wife brings the blind man home, drink in hand, already surprising the narrator; this is breaking one of the taboos set forth in his mind.
They say a picture can say 1000 words, but why can’t a story paint 1000 pictures? Well Sherman Alexie, Grace Paley, and John Cheever all paint 1000 pictures with their respected stories in the book Fiction: A Pocket Anthology by R.S. Gwynn. In the short story “Reunion”, John Cheever writes about a young man who has not seen his father in over three years and then reunites with him again. “Wants” is a story by Grace Paley and is about a recently divorced couple of 27 years running into each other unexpectedly.
The short story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver is about a blind man named Robert whose wife has recently passed. He made a visit to spend the night with his old friend and her husband. The narrator of the story is not happy about the visit from Robert. The narrator is an insensitive, superficial, cocky middle aged man. He thinks that blind people are sad, depressing and unable to live fulfilling lives.
Generals die in bed.’ ‘Well that’s a pretty nice place to die.’ “ Later that night the narrator explores the town on his own to get a little peace and quiet and stumbles on the door step of an old man, who lets him stay the night in exchange for tobacco, the next morning the narrator discovers that he has been put on leave. Character Revelations Old Man – Remains nameless in the book, speaks little English and is a scab when it comes to tobacco but allows the narrator to stay the night. Old Man’s Daughter – Remains nameless in the book, is around the age of 18. She is dark skinned like most Northerners and has olive, ruddy cheeks, sparkling eyes and black shiny hair. She sleeps with the narrator but it is not said if anything happens between them.
The reason to Conrad’s suicide attempt is his mom's acute coldness towards him shows her ultimate despise of Conrad because she blames him for not dying instead of her favorite first born son. After his suicide, Conrad is asked to see a psychiatrist by his father. Cal tries to bring the family back together, Beth, Conrad and himself, but fails to do so. Beth never once visited Conrad in the hospital and barely checks up on him to see if he was asleep. She began to shut herself from her husband and most importantly, her son.
A repressed women with a desire to be free and happy. The relation between when the woman in the wallpaper and the narrator when the woman is behind bars symbolizes the narrator and how she is trapped in this tiny room with a husband who controls her every word and actions. He undermines her in almost every way. For example the narrator says on page 590 “I am afraid, but i don't care- there is something strange about that house-I can feel it, I even said so to John one moonlight evening, but he said what i felt was a drought, and shut the window.” This shows how john undermines her fears as just a simple shiver from the window being open when she is trying to explain how she doesn't like the place because shes
The parents lack interest in their own daughter. Connie's father is rarely present in her life because he is "away at work most of the time and when he comes home he want[s] supper and he read[s] the newspaper at supper and after supper he [goes] to bed. He didn't bother talking much to them" (Oates). Her mother continually praises her older sister right in front her while complaining about Connie. For example, her mom nags her by asking, "Why don't you keep your room clean like your sister?"