Now, it is the narrator who feels like he is being judged. He keeps apologizing to Robert about not being able to describe the cathedrals. In the beginning of the story, the narrator feels like it is his responsibility to make Robert feel at home because Robert is blind and the narrator is considered “normal” in his own eyes. However, this idea changes when it was Robert who makes the narrator feel comfortable by laying his hand upon the narrator’s hand to draw a cathedral. The narrator was learning how to express himself by Robert’s encouragement which seems to reveal the narrator as a
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.
The short story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver is about a figuratively blind man who receives the gift of sight from a literally blind man. In both stories, the false preconceptions of the world towards disabled people are exposed and the true capabilities of these and many other disabled people are displayed. It is both cruel and unfair to the disabled in the world to be viewed as impotent by the able-bodied and to have to live with the expectations that the able-bodied have forced upon them. Many that are not disabled have false preconceptions about what a disabled person should look like and what they are capable of. Mark O’Brien, a disabled man and also an acclaimed poet and journalist, said "The two mythologies about disabled people break down to one: we can't do anything, or two: we can do everything.
From the beginning of the story he always identified Robert as “THIS BLIND MAN” (103). He constantly talks bad about Robert for a while in the story. When Robert is over to the house the narrator immediately notices how much attention his wife is giving to him and it made him act very dry toward Robert. All was bad with the narrator and Robert in the beginning, but after a while they started talking and got to know each other a little better because after all Robert was like a stranger to the narrator. At one point the narrator’s wife became sleepy in the later parts of the night and dosed off so that led to Robert and the narrator to have alone time to bond with each other.
Use of alliteration with ‘handle’ and ‘hold’ puts a strain on how delicate his body must be at this time. In ‘Nettles’ the poet gives us an image that even though he feels well and truly sorry for his dear son he wants him to learn from his mistakes. “We soothed him till his pain was not so raw.” The way he says, ‘not so raw’
Throughout the story to narrator puts great emphasis on how poor and unfortunate it is to be blind. It’s was difficult for the narrator understand how a blind man could reliable, show compassion and make connections with people better than he ever could. The narrator tries numerous times to understand how Robert, the blind man was able to entertain his wife and help her in her time of need, because he only saw was Roberts’ disability. He never called Robert’s by his name, he used “blind man” to identify him and stress to the readers that his blindness was all he saw, his defining character trait. As the story continues to unfold, the narrator comes to a realization that you don’t need eyes to see the world.
English Composition 1003-10 25 September 2011 The Blind Leading the Blind After first reading Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral” one could easily get the impression that the narrator is a closed-minded jerk. After reading the story a couple more times and really considering the position the narrator is put in, I began to realize he wasn’t very closed-minded at all. He was blinded by jealousy. Because society perpetuates the idea that men must be territorial in relationships, the narrator felt that he must do anything in his power to make sure his wife was not ok with a strange man coming to his home. The narrator’s wife observes, “You don’t have any friends.
Michael Hyatt Dr. Tuttle English 250 7 October 2014 Personal Response: Cathedral by Raymond Carver I really enjoyed the short story by Raymond Carver called “Cathedral”. The short story is generally about a blind man coming to visit a women and her husband. In the beginning of the story the husband to me seems to be the one that is blind. By observing how the husband acted and speaks to Robert, the blind man, I could see that the husband seemed to be very uncomfortable and misunderstanding of Robert and his condition. The husband struggles with trying to figure out what to do or say around Robert.
We clearly see prejudice in the narrator’s character from the starting gate of the story. In the beginning of the story, the narrator says, “In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs.” Even before the arrival of the blind man, the narrator has a predetermined idea that blinds are depressed and slow people who are incapable of functioning without their seeing canine. The fact that “The narrator” got his stereotype from the movies and believes in them not only shows how puerile and biased he is but also his ignorance. 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.
He explores the ideas of guilt and atonement through Amir, the novel protagonist and to a lesser extent through Baba, his father, and a wealthy Afghan man. Rahim Khan, a friend of Baba, explains the positive value of the guilt that has haunted Amir for years by showing him that it can lead to true redemption. In the novel, by exploring the ideas of guilt and atonement through Amir, Hosseini is able to show the debilitating effects on his life. Amir is so haunted and traumatised by his past that he fears that he and Soraya are unable to conceive a child as he is being punished for his childhood sins. Even though Amir believes this, he finds it hard to confess his sins to Rahim Khan and his secret can be compared to Soraya’s openness.