He also shows his prejudice rude comments by asking Robert, “What side of the train did you sit on?” The narrator lives in a protected home and Robert’s coming over to stay the night is an assault on his stereotypical fort. Therefore he states that, “A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to.” With the use of the first point of view, the reader understands where the narrator’s stereotypical notions are coming from; where as the use of another point of view would not have made it as
Robert, an old friend from his wife teaches the narrator a great lesson about life and how “learning never ends.” Robert opens the eyes of the narrator. The short story “Cathedral” is about “the blind leading the blind” in the sense that Robert, a physically blind person, leads the narrator, a spiritually blind person, to a greater understanding about life. One of the reasons the narrator is consider a spiritually blind person is because he displays lack of understanding towards blind people. The reader is able to see that the narrator is prejudice towards blind people. In the story, the narrator says “and his being blind bothered me.” The narrator is a reflection of prejudice and the stereotypes in society.
He describes the town as remote and unaffected, desolate and boring, continually mentioning the old, peeling paint and "irrelevant signs" that dot the landscape. Capote also gives the village a feeling of laziness in his writing, describing it as an "aimless congregation of buildings" and a "haphazard hamlet." He obviously feels that the town lacks liveliness, that it is bland and unchanging, simple and average. Almost looking down on the village and its inhabitants, the author characterizes the people in broad categories and focuses on their outward appearances and superficial similarities instead of delving more deeply into their abilities or livelihoods. This reveals that he views the people and their surroundings as simple and basic.
This monotonous, serenely boring life gave the man an excuse to break away from the mundane, going out on an outing; unshaven, uncharacteristic of himself. His slow and uncertain pace indicative of the adventure he was to undertake, he ends up into the stereotypical ‘bad part of town’. The author provides literary illustrations that embed this scene into the reader’s mind. ‘Three boys threw stones at pigeons. Paper clogs the fences like drifted snow.’ The sentences in these sickly paragraphs are shorter and to the point: defining the setting in stark, brief sentences; contrasting to the beginning sentences – the ones used on the basis of introducing the rather monotone character.
Asef Rahman English 10H 10/15/2012 Ethan Frome: a lonely man indeed The novel, Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, is a story about Ethan, a man torn between the moral obligations to his wife, Zeena, and his need for a person to love. The author’s use of foreshadowing, metaphors, imagery and motifs vividly convey the overall message that man cannot simply live alone and needs somebody in his life. He has Zeena but he does not converse with her at all. The fact that Starkfield was a depressing place to live did not help his life either. Although Ethan’s overall nature was damaged by the smash up, his time spent in Starkfield had caused his overall melancholy demeanor and left him feeling isolated.
The narrator’s original point of view is that Robert is from his wives past so he must be a threat to him, so jealousy is appealed, “This blind man, an old friend of my wives … I wasn’t enthusiastic about the visit”(88). He also assumes that blindness was such a major weakness that Robert was completely inferior to himself. “My idea of blindness came form the movies … A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to”(88). This is the narrator’s ignorance at play. He also thinks blind people cant smoke cigarettes.
As it says in the story, the narrator is not enthusiastic about the blind man coming and it really bothered him that he was blind: “[Robert] didn’t use a cane and he didn’t wear dark glasses: “I’d always thought dark glasses were a must for the blind. Fact was, I’d wish he had a pair” (Carver 24). When Robert comes in the house, the reader can tell the narrator was not excited about his arrival and his wife instantly disapproves of his attitude toward the man. They are introduced to each other and Robert refers to the narrator as “Bub” like a nickname. The narrator says, “Then I wanted to say something else, small-talk, about the scenic ride along the Hudson.
The poem deals with the complexities of belonging and the daily struggles of assimilating. The opening line, “No one kept count” shows the reader that the persona and his family are in a negative situation. The emphasis on the ‘no’ highlights the personas tone which is also negative and the lack of order within the hostel. “We lived like birds of passage”, is an example of a pronoun to show that the migrants tried to unite and feel a sense of belonging within another but failed as the persona still feels a sense of not belonging. Pronouns are used throughout the poem to make the reader connect with the persona.
In the first section of the novel, the narrator seems to obsess over the fact others are blind to his existence. He takes us into his troubled world, a life of homelessness, thievery, and loneliness in the city of Harlem. Unfortunately, the narrator is continually hypocritical and refuses to see the truth about society’s apparent blindness. He sees only what he wants to see as to victimize himself and his continued misanthropic behavior makes the reader question his credibility. By asking society to reject their blindness, the narrator does not realize that he, too, would have to do so as well.
Ann was becoming uninterested in John, in that he is becoming “…boring…” similar to the feeling Ann has regarding the farm, “…the frozen silence of the bitter fields…” (p.290) “It was easier to stay at home, to stand at the window staring across the bitter fields, to count the days and look forward to another spring.” (p.293) The character foils in “A Painted Door” continue in the development of the theme, in that John and Steven contrast each other, the lack of communication that John and Ann share is made up from the immense interest Steven has with pleasing Ann’s every