Cathedral

I would argue that the cathedral in Raymond Carver's great story symbolizes the discovery of empathy, the discovery of common ground, and the loss of inhibitions. At the start of the story, the...

For Robert, the blind man in Carver’s “Cathedral", the cathedral symbolizes a whole different dimension of existence. Though blind, he is able to achieve a remarkably powerful vision through the...

A good thesis for Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" can be that a person can share meaningful experiences with those from whom he least expects anything. The narrator, the husband of a sensitive woman,...

The main theme of “Cathedral” is that human connection occurs in various forms and degrees. The characters illustrate that people have different ways and abilities to connect and relate to others;...

The narrator of "The Cathedral" spends most of the story feeling very uncertain about how he would interact with a blind man. He shows the reader that he thinks that a blind person would be...

In Raymond Carver's "Cathedral," a reader might find many themes, but there is one that stands out for me. It's important to remember that a theme is a major idea or "life truth" that the author is...

A conflict arises with the confrontation of two opposing parties. Generally the conflict includes the protagonist pitted against an antagonist, whether it be represented as his conscience, nature,...

The husband and his wife are alienated from each other, mainly because the husband feels only half alive. In "Cathedral," the minimalist writer, Raymond Carver, employs a recurrent theme of anomie,...

The tone of the unnamed first-person narrator in Raymond Carver’s short story “The Cathedral” (1981) masks itself as jealousy and contempt but has more to do with emotional numbness and the...

The action of this story is set in the narrator’s home, a suburban house in the USA. Conversations take place between the narrator and his wife in their living room and in the kitchen; and between...

This is a very open-ended and personal decision on your part; writing an interpretation essay on a short story will depend entirely on your interpretation of the piece. In order to determine that,...

In Raymond Carver's minimalistic story, "Cathedral," the irony, or contrast between what is expected and what really hapens, occurs in the latter part of the narrative. For, it is the sensitive...

Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" (1981) is written in a minimalistic style. The short story illustrates the minimalistic idea of "less is more": the idea that less complicated things are typically more...

The narrator of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” could certainly be described as an antihero, though this is not such a pejorative description as readers sometimes think. An antihero is merely a...

From the first lines of "Cathedral," Raymond Carver establishes a distinctive narrative voice. His fallible, irascible, sensitive first-person narrator seems to owe something to Holden...

Figurative language uses words or techniques to communicate more meaning than the literal words themselves. Carver gives the narrator a down-to-earth voice by having him use slang. An example would...

We learn that the narrator has never met a blind person. He says the idea of Robert's disability bothers him. Rather than accepting Robert, he is made uncomfortable by his disability. He is fixated...

The narrator of "The Cathedral" starts by describing the imminent arrival of an old acquaintance of his wife. The man, Robert, is blind, and the narrator's wife used to read for him. She knew...

The theme of communication is rather sophisticated in "Cathedral." On the most basic level, Robert is able to communicate with others in a very meaningful way despite being cut off from the sense...

The narrator's preconceived notions about blind people are dispelled once he actually meets Robert in person. Before Robert's arrival, the narrator is extremely closed-minded. It is unlikely the...

There is another reason the wife keeps asking Robert if he'd like to go to bed: she is displeased that her husband (the narrator) is sharing dope (cannabis) with Robert: My wife came back...

The primary character of Raymond Carver’s story is the unnamed narrator. He is a dynamic character but not necessarily round. Carver offers very limited backstories for the characters, so the...

Robert can see much the narrator cannot. The narrator was very close-minded and did not want Robert to visit. Robert, through his other senses, is able to "see" things. He can trace...

It is clear that the narrator initially feels very awkward to have a blind man in his house and also to be watching television with him. Of course, Robert is unable to see, and although the history...

In "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, there are many references to religion and faith throughout the story. However, the cathedral itself is not brought up until near the end of the story. Prior to...

At the beginning of "Cathedral," the narrator/protagonist appears to be obtuse and clueless about people who have handicaps. The fact that his wife's friend and former employer is blind and is...

The narrator is a man who merely resides in his house: He watches his wife go to bed at night, he sees no friends, staying at home and watching television. Even when his wife's friend Robert...

The narrator freely admits in the first paragraph of Raymond Carver's short story that his impression of what blind people are like came from he movies. He perceived blind people to be slow movers,...

I would want to argue that the narrator of this story does not actually change his ideas and preconceptions and ideas about blindness until the very end of the story, when Robert asks him to close...

The whole story is about how two men establish a close relationship because of their experience with a television show about cathedrals built in the Middle Ages. Robert can hear what the announcer...

It's true the narrator is not very good at describing the cathedral to Robert. It's possible that this is because he is really high (the three characters do a tremendous amount of drinking, eating...

Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral" is about a husband and wife who are visited by an old friend of the wife's, a blind man named Robert. The story is narrated by the husband, who remains...

The image of a cathedral is used after Robert asks the narrator to describe what he sees on a television program. It is significant because it becomes the means to the act of communion between the...

If we examine the instances when Robert performs this curious behaviour, we can see that this gesture is something that indicates Robert's need to reassure himself that he is OK. The beard is...

Since the topic sentence should tell what the rest of the paragraph is about, you may wish to state something about the importance of one of the symbols to the characterization or theme of the...

I would argue that the narrator is jealous of Robert and the importance that his wife takes in her relationship with him, but that he is actually blind to his jealousy and covers it up with a show...

Men and women easily become irritated with each other after being married for a while. The narrator's wife is bothered by a lot of things in her husband. She doesn't like his heavy drinking....

To compare is to find similarities between people or things, and to contrast is to find dissimilarities. The narrator and Robert have a few, but not many, similarities. In terms of similarities,...

The point of view comes from a pretty sarcastic and rude man, who seems to be bitter and sardonic about pretty much everything in his life. Why he is so bitter, why he seems so unhappy, isn't...

In “Cathedral,” the emotionally and spiritually blind narrator leads the physically blind Robert with mixed results: Robert learns about cathedrals but is deceived into believing the narrator feels...

The ending of "Cathedral" is a kind of epiphany and catharsis for the narrator. From the opening lines, we see him as an aloof, jealous, self-involved, and ego-centric. The drawing of the cathedral...

The motif of blindness in this short story is one that is used to reflect just how much the narrator has grown and developed by the end of the story. At the beginning, the narrator is shown to be...

The entire story takes place inside of the apartment of the narrator and his wife. Although the story is called "Cathedral," that is the subject of the story and not the setting. At the beginning...

It may be a mistake to attach too much significance to the fact that the narrator keeps referring to Robert as "the blind man." When an author gives a character a particular identifying habit or...

An interesting question. Certainly, this story is full of symbolism and dual meaning—what is seeing, really? How is it that the sighted man believes himself superior to the blind man throughout the...

The short story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver tells of the visit of a blind man named Robert to a married couple. The narrator's wife has known Robert for ten years, ever since she took a job...

The blind man, Robert, is teaching the narrator how to connect to himself and by extension other people. From the beginning, the narrator is consumed with jealousy and other negative feelings that...

Tone is defined as the author’s attitude toward the subject of the text. If the subject is the narrator’s attitude toward Robert, his wife’s blind friend, then one needs to describe it in two...

The narrator at the end of this story experiences an epiphany which does seem, despite the unemotional tone of Carver's text, to indicate that his outlook on life might be different from this...

To find a quote that is significant to a text, first decide what theme you are going to discuss and then choose a quote that can act as a vehicle for discussion of that theme. What follows is an...