Thursday, January 9, 2020

Raymond Carvers Cathedral Essay - 1098 Words

Raymond Carvers Cathedral Raymond Carver utilizes his character of the husband, who is also the narrator, in his short story Cathedral. From the beginning of the story the narrator has a negative personality. He lacks compassion, has a narrow mind, is detached emotionally from others, and is jealous of his wifes friendship with a blind man named Robert. He never connects with anyone emotionally until the end of this story. At the beginning of the story the husband is telling of a blind man coming to visit him and his wife. The narrator?s wife had worked for the blind man at one point. Since then they have maintained a strong friendship and keep in touch with tapes. The narrator talks about not looking forward to the blind†¦show more content†¦Also, the narrator is jealous of his wife?s friendship with Robert because he is insecure about his own relationship with her. When the narrator has the opportunity to listen to one of the blind man?s tapes he is interrupted and never gets to finish listening to the tape. The narrator says, maybe it was just as well. I?d heard all I wanted to. This really shows that the blind man offended him, not because of something rudely said, but because of he was jealous of their emotional bond. Another way the narrator comes across negatively is because he is so detached from emotional interaction with other people. It seems that the narrator views things as only happening around him, not to him. His wife says, You don?t have any friends. Period. Besides not having any friends he does not even have a strong emotional bond with his wife. The narrator probably feels lonely having no one to talk to. The narrator again shows a lack of compassion when he thinks Robert was left with a small insurance policy and half of a twenty-peso Mexican coin. The other half of the coin went into the box with her [his late wife Beulah]. Pathetic. The way he refers to Beulah?s casket as the box and views their emotional bond as pathetic shows his complete lack of compassion. He does not even refer to the blind man by his name, Robert, until this point, but the fact that he finallyShow MoreRelatedEssay on Raymond Carvers Cathedral832 Words   |  4 PagesThe narrator in Raymond Carvers Cathedral has two fully functional eyes, in which he chooses never to use to their full potential. The eyes of the narrator are biased, insecure, jealous, and very limited in what they choose to see. This inability to see is made apparent when he is forced to meet and converse with a blind man. 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