Raymond
Carver begins his short story, ‘Cathedral’, focusing on the
initial encounter between a seeing man and a blind man, with blunt and honest language. The former narrates the experience from his point of view (pun intended), making no effort to censor himself. Only identified by 'Bub'(Carver, 36) or 'Husband'(Carver, 35) the focalizer's use of simple wording gives him credibility
with his audience.
By the end of the first paragraph the reader learns that the speaker’s wife has invited her long time friend, who happens to be blind, over to their home (Carver, 32). Immediately a sense of reluctance, from the husband, is introduced "...his being blind bothered me...In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed...not something I looked forward to"(Carver, 32). The choppy pattern of words is comparable to any person's thought process. Though the reader may not agree entirely with the narrator, everyone has been placed in a similar situation. Like being a dinner guest at a new friend's house when they serve tuna casserole. Though the cooking must be endured this does not stop someone from thinking up all sorts of heinous comments. The familiarity of the husband's tone allows the reader to maintain empathy when he makes politically incorrect comments such as his racial discrimination toward the idea of the blind man having a colored wife (Carver, 34).
The language style, or diction, is what finalizes the growth of the narrator at the end. With everything the audience has learned there would be no reason for the speaker to suddenly soften. So after the two men have been forced to entertain one another for several hours, the blind man asks a favor of the narrator. He asks him if he would describe the look of a cathedral, since the structures were being discussed through a television left on in the room. The seeing man then fails to explain a cathedral using only words, so with the blind man’s hand lightly grasping his own he draws one (Carver, 42-44). As he draws the movement across the page and the attention to detail are recognized as his only means of expressing an idea to the blind man. During this action the narrator has a revelation, he understands, to the extent of which he can, what life is like for a person outside of himself. He learns another man's perspective, and is only able to describe it as “…really something” (Carver, 44).
By the end of the first paragraph the reader learns that the speaker’s wife has invited her long time friend, who happens to be blind, over to their home (Carver, 32). Immediately a sense of reluctance, from the husband, is introduced "...his being blind bothered me...In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed...not something I looked forward to"(Carver, 32). The choppy pattern of words is comparable to any person's thought process. Though the reader may not agree entirely with the narrator, everyone has been placed in a similar situation. Like being a dinner guest at a new friend's house when they serve tuna casserole. Though the cooking must be endured this does not stop someone from thinking up all sorts of heinous comments. The familiarity of the husband's tone allows the reader to maintain empathy when he makes politically incorrect comments such as his racial discrimination toward the idea of the blind man having a colored wife (Carver, 34).
The language style, or diction, is what finalizes the growth of the narrator at the end. With everything the audience has learned there would be no reason for the speaker to suddenly soften. So after the two men have been forced to entertain one another for several hours, the blind man asks a favor of the narrator. He asks him if he would describe the look of a cathedral, since the structures were being discussed through a television left on in the room. The seeing man then fails to explain a cathedral using only words, so with the blind man’s hand lightly grasping his own he draws one (Carver, 42-44). As he draws the movement across the page and the attention to detail are recognized as his only means of expressing an idea to the blind man. During this action the narrator has a revelation, he understands, to the extent of which he can, what life is like for a person outside of himself. He learns another man's perspective, and is only able to describe it as “…really something” (Carver, 44).
It's easy to understand why the Narrator had such a hard time describing a Cathedral.
Monet spent nearly 3 years painting the same one.
Works Cited:
1. Carver, R. (2011). Cathedral. In B. Alison, & K.
J. Mays, The Norton Introduction to Literature 10th Edition (pp. 32-44).
New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company.
2. Paintings by Claude Monet from his Rouen Cathedral Series
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