Summary |
Why is it contemporary? |
Cathedral is a short story by Raymond Carver. The narrator’s wife used to read to a blind man for extra cash and later became close friends with him. Since they could not write letters back and forth, they recorded tapes and sent those. At this time, the narrator’s wife was married to an officer, meaning they had to move around a lot. She had started feeling lonely and upset with all the ended friendships after moving. Pills and gin seemed to be the only answer for her. Her husband found her and called the ambulance. She recorded this event onto her tape to the blind man. They talked about everything, even her divorce with the officer. Both the narrator’s wife and the blind man had lost their spouse. The blind man’s wife, Beluah, has gone her whole marriage without every hearing a compliment about her appearance or him ever being able to read the expression on her face. After the blind man’s wife died, he was alone. He had stayed with his in-laws for a while but later he made arrangements to meet up with the narrator’s wife. The narrator did not like this at all. He even told her, “Maybe I could take him bowling.” He was not kind about his blindness or his wife’s death. Once the blind man was all settled in, the narrator was dropping unfriendly comments everywhere until his wife fell asleep when he had no choice but to be nice to him. They watched TV, the blind man listened, when a cathedral came on the screen. All the blind man knew about cathedrals was what the person on the television had said. That’s when the blind man had asked the narrator to describe a cathedral to him. When he realized he couldn’t describe a cathedral, the blind man suggested getting a piece of paper and they drew a cathedral together, the narrator with his eyes closed. The narrator feels something special in his drawing of a cathedral, even when he doesn’t even know if is drawing is correct.
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Cathedral is a short story that focuses on characters that behave like real people struggling with real-world problems. The characters in Cathedral behave and have feelings like jealousy just like real characters. Also, the story deals with the thoughts and feelings going on in the character's mind. This is true in Cathedral because the story focuses a lot on the thoughts in the narrators mind and his feelings about the blind man staying i his home. These stories leave the reader thinking about his life.
Comparison with fat girl
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Literary elementsProtagonist- The narrator’s
wife is the protagonist. The reader most of her feelings and actions throughout
the story. The story focuses on the relationship between her and the blind man.
Conflict- There is a man vs. self-conflict. This is with the narrator. He is struggling with his thoughts and feelings when the blind many comes to his home. He is jealous of the relationship between his wife and the blind man.
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Antagonist- The narrator is the
antagonist. He stands in opposition of his wife. He does not agree with her actions
and her relationship with the blind man.
Static- The narrator is a static character. His personality does not change regardless of the action in the plot. He sees the world with new eyes for a few moments but stays the way he has always been.
Conflict- There is a man vs.
circumstance conflict. This is with the blind man. He struggles against the
circumstances facing him. He was born blind and has to live with it for his
whole life.
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