Abstract
This paper analyzes Raymond Carver's "Cathedral." It focuses on the first person narrator's struggle to accept the blind man, Robert, as a human being. The paper breaks down the plot and gives several examples of the narrator's arrogant, misled preconception of blind people. The paper then comes to show the narrator's eventual acceptance of the man towards the end of the book.

From the Paper
""Cathedral" by Raymond Carver is a very pristine example of a short story in which a character undergoes change quite drastically. In the beginning, the first person narrator is very skeptical about a blind man, Robert, coming over to stay the night at his house. Robert has been a friend to his wife for over ten years, as she used to work for him in the past (Carver 421). The narrator is less than interested in having Robert spend the night. At first he does not believe that they will be able to do anything fun together, but as the night progresses he learns that the blind man and himself have a lot in common, and eventually he becomes rather friendly to Robert."

Tags:narrator, preconceptions, friendship

Abstract
The paper looks at how, in Raymond Carver's short story, "Cathedral", there are three revealing moments which establish and emphasize his theme that human insecurities and prejudices are in fact forms of blindness which inflict much more harm and impose far more limitations than physical blindness. The paper discusses the first of these moments when the narrator's wife tells him a blind friend of hers is coming over to visit, the second moment when the narrator ponders the basis of his wife's relationship with her blind friend, and the third moment when the narrator is transformed by his discovery that sincere communication is such a fundamental and rewarding human experience.

Tags:raymond, carver, cathedral

Abstract
This paper examines Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral" and focuses on the function of the narrator and of the blind man. It analyzes the narrator's realization of his own emotional and intellectual blindness.

From the Paper
"Raymond Carver's short story Cathedral is narrated by a man who finds it all but impossible to be in the presence of Robert, a blind friend of his wife's. This unnamed narrator, a man in middle life married to a woman who has ..."

Tags:Raymond, Carver, Cathedral, Narrator

Abstract
The paper shows how the first person narratives of "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver and "Stones" by Timothy Findley are significant in that they offer internal and external views of the worlds that are represented. The paper discusses how for Carver, the division between the husband's internal fears of understanding the blind are eventually externalized as he successfully helps the blind mind understand what a cathedral is through drawing.

Tags:carver, findley, cathedral

Abstract
Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral" from 1983 features an unnamed central character who narrates the entire story in the first person. This character very much sets the overall style and form of the story itself, both in his use of language and in the elements that he focuses on. This is where the story leaves us, and just like the narrator, we know that an important insight has been gained, due to the catalyst inadvertently provided by the stranger, but are unable to precisely define what it may be.

From the Paper
Carver's "Cathedral" OUTLINE 1. Thesis: The husband is the 1^st-person narrator and sets the tone and form of the story. 2. Description of three-character organization and priority of narrator's viewpoint. 3. Background information establishes nature and importance of central character. 5. Turning point and epiphany: the television show comes on, forcing narrator into action (describing images to blind man) and leading to

Tags:carver, short story, analysis

Abstract
In this article, the writer examines the characters and the ideas inherent in Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral." One can see the growth of a main character, the husband, from feeling uncomfortable around a blind stranger, to finding a common bond- especially after some Scotch and marijuana. The writer discusses that the blind man seems comfortable with his blindness and, slowly but surely, the husband forgets his earlier apprehension about a blind person being so "different".

From the Paper
"The fact that Raymond Carver is (was) black, is not startling. But his approach to the characters in short stories like "Cathedral" is far from the "black characters" that other writers use. "Looking closely at black (not Black) humor in American author Carver's (1938-88) work... strategies of black humor, distinct and recurring in his writing, evolve over time from an initial absurdity to a graying and eventually a diminuation in the more generous style of his later period...His work (is) both a part of traditional American fiction of black humor and a marker of black humor's local and historical developments ..."

Tags:blindness, carver, character, growth

Abstract
In this paper, the author compares how the theme of love is represented in two stories, "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, and "Shiloh" by Bobbie Ann Mason. One story describes how love builds between two spouses while the other shows how love can fall apart. The author cites additional sources to describe the theme in the two works. The paper concludes by stating that both stories show the incredible epiphanies associated with love, and the destructive force of emotional pain.

From the Paper
"In his article in "eThoughts.com," Travis Gibbs asks the question, "Is love some absolute, a fact of the universe that can be discovered and copied onto and into human lives? (Gibbs). The two stories, "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, and "Shiloh" by Bobbie Ann Mason, illustrate that love is constructed in dissimilar ways. Carver constructs love as a positive manifestation of growth and understanding in an unlikely setting, while Mason shows us love destroys itself, as manifested between two people who fit into a normal "construct," that is, being man and wife."

Tags:Cathedral, Raymond, Carver, Shiloh, Bobbie, Ann, Mason, love, literary, themes

Abstract
The paper shows how Raymond Carver's stories reflect his own life experiences and show a change in style over time. The paper demonstrates how many of his settings and situations can be linked to his real life and highlights the progression in the stories "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please," "So Much Water, So Close to Home," "Cathedral," and "Errand." The paper brings out how each of these stories, written at different times in Carver's life, has a different style and feel, showing his progression as a writer.

From the Paper
"Raymond Carver's stories reflect his own life experiences and show a change in style over time. As such, the stories he wrote also changed in flavor as his life changed. Whether it was his own struggle with alcoholism or his experiences working in a sawmill, many of the settings and situations in Carver's stories can be linked to his real life. For this reason, a progression is apparent in the stories "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please," "So Much Water, So Close to Home," "Cathedral," and "Errand." Each of these stories, written at different times in Carver's life, has a different style and feel, showing his progression as a writer."

Tags:raymond, carver, literature

Abstract
This paper takes us through the early life and hardships of Raymond Carver and relates that Carver eventually found success with his book ''Cathedral''. The paper then describes the book in some detail, explaining that it is an expression of the glimpses ordinary people might have of insight about the broader, more magical world.

From the Paper
''Raymond Carver has often been described as a "minimalist" writer, one who renders moments of contemporary American life in a language that is spare in expression and bleak in outlook. Implicit in this labeling is the notion that his stories lack any transformative vision, that they present to us tales of alcoholics and losers as though blind, serf-destructive behaviors were matters of naturalistic fact and not subject to change through the insight stories can provide to their characters and their readers. Carver's early critics, notably James Atlas in 1981 and Madison Bell in 1986, accused him of what amounts to a flatness, not only in language, but in artistic vision; in this view, Carver leaves his characters in lives of quiet desperation (see Saltzman 1988, 178-82). HYPERLINK "http://www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=26453567" (Lounsberry et al. 21)
''His early life, as the son of two working class people was a constant hardship as his father's alcoholism took its toll on the family and gave Carver great insight into living in an insular fashion, day by day, subsistence life.''

Tags:characters, relationships, naturalistic

Abstract
This paper discusses how Raymond Carver's stories reflect his own life experiences and show a change in style over time. As such, the stories he wrote also changed in flavor as his life changed. The paper attempts to show that, whether it was his own struggle with alcoholism or his experiences working in a sawmill, many of the settings and situations in Carver's stories can be linked to his real life. The paper also looks at how a progression is apparent in the stories "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please," "So Much Water, So Close to Home," "Cathedral," and "Errand" and how each of these stories, written at different times in Carver's life, has a different style and feel, showing his progression as a writer.

From the Paper
"In Carver's 1976 story "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?" the author very effectively chooses detail and description to build up suspense and concern for the main character, Ralph. After finding out that his wife has cheated on him, Ralph has a night on the town where, among other things, he is mugged. Both his wife's cheating and his current uncomfortable situation do not need excessive detail to evoke empathy in the reader. Carver simply shows up, through the clear cause and effect, how events unfold for Ralph and his wife. Bethea believes that Ralph and Marian having sex at the end shows an epiphany in Ralph (133). "

Tags:alcoholism, sawmill