Comparing Life Experience in Narratives - Research Paper Example

Comparing life experience Raymond Carver the of Cathedral writes a simple story where a man gets annoyed about the arrival of his wife’s friend, mainly since he is blind. Readers learn from the story the prejudice he has towards the blind people, and also how he is aware of how his life lacks intimacy and meaning. The reader comes to see how he changes because of his interaction with the blind man. The fear and the dislike of the blind people are majorly the focus of the story. The narrator goes ahead in expressing his dislike for the blind people, by saying that they move slowly, using canes, never laugh, wear dark glasses and use Seeing Eye dogs. Upon the meeting of the blind person, all this thoughts get dispelled. Carver ensures the blind man becomes humanized as a human being so the present stereotypes’ get broken. Everyday Use is the short story about a mother, Ms. Johnson and her daughters Dee and Maggie. Maggie got burnt badly by a fire. She still has the scars all over the arms and legs. Dee, her sister is healthy and has no problems. Whereas the world rejected Maggie, Dee was always the favorite. Every day use I about how one’s culture and heritage should become applied daily so as not to forget the traditions. Dee is ashamed of her families’ heritage, and the narrator in the Cathedral is uncomfortable with the blind person presence in their home. From the stories, we are able to see that, those with the problems are not the people with disabilities rather the people treated as superior to the disabled people. In Cathedral, Carver demonstrates that salvation lies in the contacts of humans and the connection. In the introduction of the story, it is evident that the narrator (also the husband) was indeed lonely. He had a poor relationship with his wife as he questioned if he loved her, since he did not want to invite Robert (the blind man) her friend whom she truly cared for. The wife told the narrator; that if he loved her, he would do that for him, and if not, okay (Carver 1). The narrator felt insecure by Robert, especially since she had told Robert about him and they had never met. He also had no close relationships with other people. The narrator is jealous of his wife’s first husband, smokes marijuana daily and is envious of her wife’s friendship with the blind man. Just like in the cathedral, in the short story Everyday Use, Maggie is nervous because of the presence of her sister in the home. According to the author, Maggie is nervous about her sister Dee, because of her burn scars. She feels inferior to her sister because she has had many opportunities that she did not have. Mama says, “Maggie will still be nervous until her sister leaves” (Walker 14). In the narrative, Alice Walker, personifies the different ways of culture and heritage in Dee, the mother, and Maggie. Each one of them has different qualities and philosophies of life. Nevertheless, contrary to the cathedral, Mama and Maggie are both proud and happy of her life. Mama is happy of the life she is living. Dee, on the other hand, is like the narrator in the Cathedral; she is not happy and thinks that she is in control of her life. She believes in her own self and does not to get associated with her sister and mother. The mother explains how she always wanted the best things and how she always got what she wanted. The narrator writes, “At sixteen, she had her own style and knew what style was” (Walker 20). This gets seen in the story when she wants the churn top and the dasher and also the old quilts that the mother had promised to give Maggie. Maggie, on the other hand, has accepted life as it is and lives in the uneducated world with happiness in her heart and not material possessions. In the short story, the only names mentioned were of Robert’s wife who died (Beulah) and Robert. The narrator refers to himself as I and is not associated with a name together with the wife. This is dehumanizing to both the husband and wife. The husband feels that he gets stuck in his career. This we are able to see when Robert tries to have a conversation with him. According to the author, “he would turn his blind face towards the narrator, place his hand under his beard, and ask anything. What is the period that you have been in this current position? 3 years. Did you enjoy your work? No, I did not” (Carver 11). The husband in the Cathedral has a lot of stereotypes about the blind people activities even though he had never met one... Carver begins the story with the words “The blind man...” (Carver 11). The blind person does not get a name at first, proving the fact that he was blind was the crucial issue the cared for by the narrator. He is upset that the blind man was heading to his home. Similarly, Dee from Everyday Use believes that the naive traditions are all about the culture of Africa and she is not ready to be associated with the heritage of her family until it is in fashion. Dee gets embarrassed of her families heritage and whatever they represent. When she went to the city, got educated and became a sophisticated young lady, she wrote to her mom that she will be visiting but will never come along with her friends. She says, “I have purposefully turned my back on the house, is it three rooms just like the one that got burnt, apart from the roof that is tin…” (Walker 22). She is ashamed of letting her friends know the actual conditions of living of her family and the naive way of life they live. “There are no windows, just some holes cut in the sides, just like the port holes in a ship” (Whitsitt 14). She understands the traditions of Africa and its culture, yet she does not want to acknowledge her own African American culture. She construes her heritage and tradition as material goods rather than the habits of her ancestors and their way of life. She claims that the reason of her changing her name is that she could not stand getting named after the same people who oppress her. When she gets called by her mother, she replies, “No mama, not Dee, Wangero Kemanjo Lewanika” (Walker 26). Since she does not want to be associated with her family’s tradition and heritage, she believes that changing of her name will give her the much needed freedom. She goes ahead to explain to mama the reason for her changing the name. “I could not stand it anymore, getting named after my oppressors” (Walker 26). Attending college has totally transformed the mind of Dee. She gets exposed to new ideas and ways of life. She is not aware of the traditional craft like making of quilts but is aware the old quilts are invaluable and priceless artifacts of culture. According to her, heritage gets based from appearances. Dee claims that she only wants the churn to be the centerpiece for the alcove table. “I can use the churn…, and I will think of something artistic to do with it” (Walker 26). There is no personal connection she gets to history like her mother and sister does. She likes the texture of the bench and not the fact that her father made them. When she is leaving home, she tells Maggie that it is a new day for them, but from the way she is living with her mother, she will never know (Walker 26). In the Cathedral, the wife of the narrator is a lovely lady with a soft heart for helping people with need, she has strong morals and values that will better their lives, just like Mama in Everyday use, she is a straightforward, traditional woman who values culture and heritage for the usefulness together with its personal significance by living an ordinary life. Mother does not like Dee’s materialistic connection to her heritage. Maggie is polite, and a passive sister who resembles mama in her ordinary way of life but remembers its heritage and meanings in it. Dee symbolizes the materialistic and modern ways of life where the societal cultures and heritage become valued for their artistic appeal (Walker 22). The narrator found the blind man; captivating and he give a lively description of him. This shows that the prejudices Robert has are melting away slowly. “The blind man… was a bald man with stooped shoulders, like he carried a tremendous weight there. He had brown slacks and shoes, a light brown shirt and a sports coat” (Carver 12). The narrator says that Robert never wore dark glasses, which he thought was a must for the blind. The narrator observes how the blind man carries himself, talks, eats and possesses a rich history of easy conversations and healthy working relationships. He appears normal. The narrator is slowly accepting him as his stereotypes of the blind fade. In contrast, In Everyday Use, Maggie, Mother and Maggie are not happy with Dee’s new culture. Both of them do not want to be changed by the alien culture embraced by Dee. They become intimidated by her new image. To the two, their family traditions and heritage is everything around them plus get involved mostly in their daily lives and everything involved with the ancestors. According to Dee, traditions should be hang on the wall as a reminder of a family’s history (Whitsitt 15). Robert uses his other senses to learn about people. He uses his sense of touch in a number of ways. We see this when he touched the face of the woman to learn it in a form that the woman never forgot. According to the author, “something valuable occurred to her” (Carver 4). The blind man also squeezes the hand of the narrator hard upon meeting him. This symbolizes how touch can be so powerful. One can learn about a person just through the act of touch. We are also able to see how senses can be vital; when the narrator was thinking about how Robert got married to a woman he had never seen with his eyes. The blind person uses his auditory skills by listening to the Television and by being a ham radio operator. He effectively uses his spatial talents by getting his bearings. The blind man is also intuitive. He sees the need for a learning experience, one that will later help the narrator observe from the blind man view (Carver 11). The author depicts the narrator as a depressed person whose life lacks happiness and meaning. Similarly to the blind man, Maggie has a great memory and uses this to store information told to her. As they were discussing the churn, she says that, Aunt Dee’s husband is the one who whittled the dash. “His name was Henry, but nicknamed Stash,” (Walker 15), continued Maggie. She probably got this information from her mom and stored it in her memory as a section of her ideas of history. She highly values the quilts for the meaning they have to her as an individual. The statement that she makes when saying that she cannot remember Grandma Dee without the quilts, shows that she has a personal and emotional connection with the quilts. The quilts are significant to Maggie. This is because they represent the people and not because of the idea that they got stitched by hand. The presence of the cathedral on Television is a metaphor for the spiritual awakening of the needs of the narrator. The cathedrals design, strong foundation, towering structure, colorful windows that reach up inspires people. The cathedral symbolizes everything that the narrator is not and everything that the blind man is. The cathedral is what they are talking about, but it later becomes more than just that. It works as a way of reaching the narrator and show him how to see things differently (Carver 3). When Robert puts his hands on the narrator, to draw what the cathedral looks like, he is attempting to show him that even with his eyes closed; he can see things in a different, new way. When he gets asked to open his eyes, the narrator is reluctant because he is learning that being able to see is more than a visual experience. It is being able to see with your heart and mind too. The cathedral gave the blind man and the narrator an opportunity to talk about religion and illustrate the need to believe in unseen things (Carver 11). The Cathedral ends with the narrator seeing the light and attempting to change his life. However, in Everyday Use, Dee still does not value her traditions and she still is not willing to follow them and accept them as a part of her life. In the two stories, it gets observed that there are two characters, the narrator in Cathedral, and Maggie in Everyday Life, who discriminate the people around them for who they are. The narrator is reluctant to accept the blind man. This shows that he is the one suffering from insecurity, career problems and cannot live in peace like the blind man. He is nevertheless, influenced by the blind man, to change his ways, and he comes to see the disabled people in a different way. Dee becomes affected by her new culture; she no longer values her traditions and heritage. She thinks that her mother and Maggie are naive. In the real sense, she is influenced by the other cultures and does not appreciate the value of traditions and ones heritage. She does not respect her parents and ends up living the other culture. She is the disabled one since she does not come to understand her values but attempts to live a different life. Works Cited Carver, Raymond. "Cathedral." Misanthropy Today (2009): 1-4. —. "Cathedral." sparknotes (2008): 11-12. Walker, Alice. "Every day Use." The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Anna Charters. Boston : Bedford/St. Martin's,Print., 2011. —. "Every day Use Chapter Summary & Analysis | Detailed Summary & Analysis." Book Rags (2004): 14-15. Whitsitt, Sam. "In Spite of It All: A Reading of Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use." African American Review (2000): 14-12. ? ? Read More