Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral" depicts the disparity of people's perception of disability issues. Ideally, it sheds light on misconceptions, assumptions, and the disparities in looking and hearing in everyday life (Zhou 55). It focuses on how diverse perspectives and judgments are formed psychologically by physically able and impaired individuals. The writer, the main character, is incapable of looking at and appreciating those around him, including his wife. On the other side, Robert, a visually impaired man whom the narrator welcomes to his home, can see people from his heart. Despite that he cannot see with his eyes, he can understand that visual ability is not limited to eyes. Instead, paying attention is crucial for understanding of ideal behaviour, character, nature, and feelings of others. In this essay, there is a demonstration that Cathedral argues against basing limits on a person on the basis of physical disability.
The two main characters of the story, Robert and the narrator are distinguished by Carver. More so, sight and blindness are differentiated effectively. Nonetheless, the capability of acquiring knowledge is explored between the two characters. Specifically, the narrator represents a person with a capability of views without seeing while Robert represents a person that can see without viewing symbolically. The interaction between them challenges the misconception of vision and its link with knowledge. More specifically, Carver illustrates that the disability is seeing but not what actually accounts to blindness but inability to understand. Carver presents the narrator as a person with the ability to view things and people with his eyes but with an inability to see the problems the wife is going through while Robert acts as a person that cannot see properly but can understand things.
With the characters, Carver suggests that there is no end to the attitude of learning as opposed to the general views of most societies that disabled people’s learning is limited. According to Carver, a person who is physically challenged can gain new knowledge in a similar way, or better than the person without such disability. Carver used the narrator’s inability to understand the world around him to illustrate it.
Carver’s Cathedral typically reflects on physical and mental vision. Carver suggests that the preconceived underestimation ideas against the disabled are based on prejudice rather than experience. At the beginning, the narrator’s perception that blind people’s mobility is slow and they cannot laugh is an indication of how the society perceives the people that are handicapped. Such negative gift of prejudice against people with disability is overcome by the gift of experience and open-mindedness. The narrator’s eventual understanding that the disabled people can see or perceive the world better through experience and attention demonstrates breaking through prejudice.
Robert has been a long-term friend of the narrator’s wife. His relationship provoked the narrator’s insecurities. The long-term friendship had seen the woman and Robert share countless audio messages. As a result, the narrator fears that his wife might have told Robert about the secrets of the marriage drama (Carver 1054). When the Robert arrives and asserts that he feels that he had already met with the wife, the fears of the narrator are almost confirmed. Ideally, the narrator is worried about what his wife might have told the blind man that he underestimates. In approximately five pages, besides questioning the potential of his wife’s secret affair with Robert, the narrator demonstrates how the wife is close to the blind man the reader can argue that the narrator seeks to justify his irrational behaviour with that.
Rather than embracing sensitivity, the main character of Carver’s story depicts self-centeredness, ego, and superficial understanding as suggested by Facknitz (287). The narrator depicts insensitivity in his marriage, which Robert understands while he himself is incapable of seeing. For instance, at the beginning, the narrator asserts that he does not want to talk about the life between the first man his wife married because he was merely a childhood sweetheart which demonstrates his incapability of paying attention to his wife (Werlock & James 124). When describing his wife, the narrator tells an ever-shifting story in a rough way but in the course of telling it, he makes defensive comments and snide remarks. By the time the entire story is out, the listeners can get a lot of information beyond the entire story.
Stereotypes, discrimination, and prejudice can target people with visual impairment. Such judgement based on a particular aspect that is visible is challenged in Carver’s story “Cathedral.”. What the narrator thinks about blind people is based on what he sees in movies. According to him, seeing-eye dogs are used to lead the blind people ( Carver 209). With the aesthetic experience from the cathedral, the narrator realizes that seeing incorporates other senses besides viewing and making judgments. The narrator realizes that by closing his eyes, his mind can be opened to learning as well. The outgoing personality of Robert makes him see the world better than the narrator.
The use of stereotypes in social interactions is common among people according to Cathedral (Sklenicka 372). The generalization can either be positive or negative. Robert challenges the traditional notions that because the blind are incapable of seeing others physically, they are also incapable of seeing them generally. He depicts sight as a simplistic relationship with learning and acquiring knowledge. Nonetheless, Robert addresses the barriers that the human tendency to rely on vision as the manly means through which a person or any creature can experience the world. The wife of the narrator’s actions is off-stereotypes against people that are visually disabled. As opposed to her husband, she treats a blind person positively
The narrator, Robert, and the narrator's wife find meaning and insight in their experiences through storytelling, drawing, and poetry. The author suggests that understanding a person requires a deeper engagement rather than seeing him or her. The narrator demonstrates the skill of looking by looking at his wife, house and that Robert arrives. By not being blind, the narrator perceives that he is superior to Robert. With his prejudice, the narrator understands that people that are visually impaired have little to do with their lives
The narrator misconceives blind people because he believes that such people isolate themselves from the rest of the society. More so, because of blindness and consequently, failing to lead an ordinary life, Robert cannot make a woman happy according to the narrator. He assumes that the ability to see is entirety hence makes little effort to do further research about what he is seeing. The superficial view makes the speaker not to understand this wife well despite that they have stayed together for long in marriage. On the other hand, Robert who is physically disabled has a deeper capability of seeing more than the narrator because he can understand the narrator’s wife better. Robert’s capability of seeing is based on paying attention to words.
The narrator believes that it is hard for a blind person to marry a person whose body is not visually impaired. When he hears about the deceased wife of Robert, Beulah, he asks whether she was Negro, which offends his wife immediately. Nevertheless, when he narrates about Beulah, he blames her for marrying a blind man in the first place. He cites the name Negro because of the name Beulah. He also asserts that Beulah could not see herself through the eyes of Robert saw her (Carver 349). The assertions indicate a lack of compassion for the deceased lover of Robert. More so, he suggests that Robert might not have seen his true love by marrying Beulah. With that, the narrator acts sarcastically. The tragic flaw of insensitivity results from misunderstanding things that are presented to him. Asking the blind Robert whether his wife was a Negro seeks to justify his negative stereotypic attitude. Moreover, the narrator believes that when people are married, the spend time together to understand one another but the disabled people such as the blind are incapable of doing it. However, despite that he narrator thinks that he is better off than the physically disabled in marriage, the interaction between his wife and Robert disapproves it because Robert is more capable of listening to others as opposed to the narrator.
The wife has spent the last seven years confiding on Robert by sending him audio tapes. More specifically, the reason behind his wife’s frequent writing of poems is based on her desire to keep a record of her important memories. Such as the time she was touched on her face by Robert. Despite that the narrator does not like the poems; she believes that he has a capability of understanding them. The narrator does not know that despite that he has stayed with his wife for a long time, he does not understand her adequately.
Most judgments are psychological rather than real. The manner in which things happen confuses the narrator. The interaction between his wife and Robert makes him suspect that the wife and Robert have an affair. It is the main reason why he refers to him by different names such as “my wife”, “my officer's wife”, in the story. Apparently, such treatment indicate that the narrator lacks awareness that she has lost him because of his military life
When the narrator’s wife decides to commit suicide using pills, she reveals that she is ready to leave her husband and talk to friends. She simply wants to forget about her life because of desperation that her husband cannot see (Bethea 137). It is the foundation for her decision to contacting her previous boss (Robert). The frequent exchange of audiotapes with Robert is an indicator of the hunger harboured in her mind, the narrator fails to understand that Robert has the same problem as Beulah. While Beulah is tired of her life, Robert has also lost his wife to cancer. With the interaction, Carver suggests that the disabled can answer complex question much better than the able-bodied people.
The time that the narrator gains insight about his individual life is when he draws a cathedral in the presence of Robert. While the drawing enables him to have a deeper self-understanding, Robert also gleans insight from the picture. The cathedral is a symbol of ideal sight. Despite that Robert is incapable of visualizing the narrator’s drawing, he can share the experience of the awakening of the speaker. More so, the narrator has no understanding about his capability of drawing the cathedral after closing his eyes but admits that the experience is important to him. A person capable of drawing the cathedral has the ability to see beyond the superficial meaning that lies within. Before the narrator draws it, his world is full of simplicity. He can see but Robert cannot do it. However, in an attempt to describe the cathedral shown on the television, he establishes that he cannot create the words with which to describe it. The narrator gets a sense of newfound understanding when he retells the story of his epiphany. With this, Carver suggests that the visually disabled Robert demonstrates that a person can have a better view of things without necessarily looking at them.
Before beginning to draw it, the narrator states that the cathedral does not have any meaning to him and goes on to tell Robert that he does not believe in anything. However, when he decides to draw the cathedral using the pieces of information in his mind, he is pulled in. In fact, he realizes that he can add details to make the picture complete. After the drawing, the narrator keeps his eyes shut but he can see sees it more clearly than he sees anything with his open eyes. The weightless and placeless feeling makes the narrator understand that he has reached the epiphany. Similar to the ay the cathedral offers people a place to worship and find solace, the drawing opens the narrator’s door for a deeper place in his personal world where he can see beyond what can be viewed immediately which indicates the hidden capabilities of the visually disabled.
The rhythmic physical acts of preparing and drinking create important links and connections in the narrative. A character sips an already prepared drink or prepares a drink and drinks before taking an action. For instance, the narrator’s wife takes a bottle of gin before taking a drink (Gale 18). She also does it when she is about to little to the tapes of Robert. The narrator also drinks when she tells him about Beulah and when for Robert and his wife to come home from the train station. The three also drink and smoke regularly in the evenings (Carver & Baldwin 6). The dreamy tone of the story arises with meaning are both unclear and hard to focus. The ability to drink like ordinary people indicates that the visually-disabled can enjoy like everyone else
The physically impaired Robert believes that Beulah, the wife of the narrator is suffering because her husband has never truly seen her. The audiotapes that she exchanges with Robert depict a sense of empathy and understanding that does not incorporate seeing with eyes. Apparently, the relationship between Beulah and Robert is complex and significantly hard to understand by merely looking athletic actions. She asserts that Robert’s tape is full of ‘chitchat’. However, a closer view of the intimate feeling indicates that her marriage with the narrator lacks the element. Drawing the cathedral with is eyes closed enable the narrator to understand that his wife and Robert had achieved a deeper level of understanding of one another than he had ever done with her.
In his opinion, Carver presents the narrator as the one who is blinder because he is ignorant to finer details about life. He cannot believe that smallest compliments to loved ones, mutual understanding in the family can change the way the beloved one sees herself but Robert understands it. On the other hand, Robert can determine details such as the smell the perfume of the narrator’s wife, listen to her voice, enjoy her personality and touch her skin. It is the little help from Robert that enables the narrator to change his adverse attitude and learn to love his wife.
In conclusion, Cathedral suggests that the abilities of physical people must not be underestimated. Carver deftly illustrates the differences in the way the two perceive life. The author argues against negative stereotypes against the physically disabled. Rather than basing arguments on the functionalities of various body parts, people should be capable of putting themselves in other people's shoes. Advocates of stereotypes are people that are handicapped because they have a narrow-minded point of view. By closing his eyes, he gets a glimpse of getting inside the shoes of the blind man and develops a sense of remorse for people that are disabled like Robert as well as those that are not disabled like his wife.
Works Cited
Bethea, Arthur. Technique and Sensibility in the Fiction and Poetry of Raymond Carver. 2013.Print. https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=DjZth3QQlC0C&pg=PA133&dq=cathedral-+Raymond+carver&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=cathedral-%20Raymond%20carver&f=false
Carver, Raymond. "Cathedral." (1995).Print
Carver, Raymond, and David Baldwin. Cathedral. Harvill Press, 1999. Print. http://www.wordslingingwoman.com/Comp2/Cathedral-Ray%20Carver.pdf
Facknitz, Mark AR. "" The Calm,"" A Small, Good Thing," and" Cathedral": Raymond Carver and the Rediscovery of Human Worth." Studies in Short Fiction 23.3 (1986): 287.Print
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Gale, Cengage L. Study Guide for Raymond Carver's Cathedral. Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning, n.d.. Print. https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=RGGqCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=cathedral+raymond+carver&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=cathedral%20raymond%20carver&f=false
Sklenicka, Carol. Raymond carver: A writer’s Life. The first biography of America’s best-known short story writer of the late twentieth century.2009. Print https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=WYgw_JYmnQYC&pg=PA372&dq=cathedral+raymond+carver&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=cathedral%20raymond%20carver&f=false
Werlock, Abby H. P, and James P. Werlock. The Facts on File Companion to the American Short Story. New York NY: Facts On File, Inc, 2010. Print. https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=lWuyTK_0eBsC&pg=PA124&dq=cathedral-+Raymond+carver&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=cathedral-%20Raymond%20carver&f=false
Zhou, Jingqiong. Raymond Carver's Short Fiction in the History of Black Humor. New York: P. Lang, 2006. Print. https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=cLTsZ39XW80C&pg=PA55&dq=cathedral-+Raymond+carver&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=cathedral-%20Raymond%20carver&f=false
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