Raymond Carvers Cathedral - Book Report/Review Example

Literary Analysis of a Short Story: Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral" (1983) demonstrates how Carver shows the possibility of revelation in everyday situations. His stories generally concern those at the bottom of the social rung: the poor, the addicted, and the isolated. In this story, the central character is isolated, coarse and even bigoted, as Carver shows by revealing his racism "Her name was Beulah! That's a name for a colored woman. "Was his wife a Negro" I asked" (paragraph 6). Despite this, his revelation offers him the chance of freedom from the dull routine of his life. The purpose of this literary analysis is to demonstrate how Carver produces revelation in "Cathedral" through the use of strong characterization, powerful symbols, and the symbol of liberation. An initial reading of the text reveals that the plot does not include drama, or extraordinary events; the story might be described as one in which "not much occurs", and the site of the narration is one small house. The narrative is in the first person, meaning that we also see the thoughts of one of the characters. As the plot focuses upon emotional tension and revelation, this first-person narrative is essential in helping the reader to understand the epiphany which is the focus of the story. The plot involves the arrival of a friend of the narrator's wife; he is a stranger to the narrator himself. The friend is blind, and the first part of the story describes the previous relationship of the wife and the blind man; the second part describes the narrator's conversation with the blind man, which results in an 'epiphany' for the narrator. Carver is not concerned with writing a plot in which something physically demanding happens to the characters which forces them to change: instead, he intends to describe an emotional change which is as powerful as any dramatic narration. He does this through the use of narrative devices; intricate symbolism, and the plot devices of jealousy, the arrival of a strange person, and the tensions within the narrator's marriage, shown here - "My wife finally took her eyes off the blind man and looked at me. I had the feeling she didn't like what she saw. I shrugged." (17). The slow and common-place narration of the story means that the reader can connect with the characters - there is nothing else within the narration to take the reader's attention away from them. Carver's story contains only three characters: the Narrator, the wife, and the blind man, Robert. The narrator comes appears to be a rather objectionable man, isolated and friendless, desperately in need of the epiphany of communication. Carver shows him as bigoted, jealous, rather ignorant, and coarse, for example when he appears to say 'Grace' at the meal, he turns it into a joke "'Now let us pray'...'Pray the phone won't ring and the food doesn't get cold". He also appears to be unnamed in the story (the blind man calls him 'bub', but this seems to be a friendly term, rather than the narrator's name by his reaction, "'Right.' I said. Bub!" (20)). In addition, although the histories of both the wife and the blind man are revealed in the story, the narrator himself has none. The character is one that it is difficult to like, and yet his honest narration makes him appealing and interesting to the reader; his epiphany is more powerful as he appears so objectionable at the beginning. The narrator is the 'protagonist', the person who is the centre of the narrative, much like the traditional hero of storytelling. The wife (also nameless), while being in some ways as objectionable as the narrator, for instance in the way in which she keeps writing poems (2). She is demanding: "if you love me...you can do this for me" (6), and also seems at times to actively dislike her husband (for instance in the sentence used in the second paragraph). The blind friend is the only character to be named in the story, as Robert (his wife is named, but she does not appear as an actual character in the story). He is perhaps the most sympathetic character in the story; he seems willing to try things, for example when he smokes cannabis for the first time (36), or "I'm always learning something. Learning never ends. It won't hurt me to learn something tonight" (42) and he perhaps offers the narrator some sympathy and understanding, for example when he opts to stay up with the narrator, commenting that he (Robert) and the wife have talking all night (40). The blind man is the 'antagonist' of the story, as he comes into the lives of the couple, and through his intervention their lives are changed. Carver also uses the man's blindness to provide ironic commentary upon the different 'blindness' of the characters. The narrator initially feels sorry for the blind man, viewing him as dependant; the narrator feels superior to him, basing his assumptions upon movies and ideas of the blind's dependence (1). He has little sympathy or understanding of the blind, and imagines his wife as having a 'pitiful life', "All this without having ever seen what the goddamned woman looked like...Hearing this, I felt sorry for the blind man for a little bit, and then I found myself thinking what a pitiful life this woman must have led" (8). Carver then shows how the narrator takes his vision for granted by demonstrating how limited he is in other ways, particularly when it comes to communication and expressing emotion (13) and (14). It quickly becomes clear that the blind man has more of a life than the narrator, he has many friends, and while he learns and experiments and experiences much, the narrator is stuck in his routine, a narrow lifestyle which is a kind of imprisonment for example "Every night I smoked dope and stayed up as long as I could before I fell asleep. My wife and I hardly ever went to bed at the same time" (41). It is finally revealed that the narrator is not even able to utilize his vision that he has taken for granted, when he is unable to describe the appearance of the Cathedral (52). This prompts the revelation; the connection which the narrator feels with the blind man as he draws the cathedral, he adds details and flourishes which he was unable to say, and finds it hard to stop drawing, so great is the feeling of liberation(61). The inability to speak, both to describe and express emotions, is equal to the restriction in his life, while the drawing allows him to reveal his feelings, and liberate himself from the constrictions - this is the epiphany. The epiphany for the reader is in the difference between the physical blindness of the wife's friend, and the emotional blindness of the narrator: while the blind man is not imprisoned in his disability, the narrator is trapped in his own, rather dull, life. Although the wife is a secondary character in the story, it is also clear that Carver intends to show how her own life is also trapped in routine. She perhaps views the visit of her friend as an opportunity to escape that confinement, but instead, it is the narrator who is liberated by his conversations with the blind man. The nature of the narrator's epiphany is the discovery of his ability to see beyond his narrow life: "My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn't feel like I was inside anything" (63), which he achieves through the symbol of the Cathedral. In the story, it is described in terms of a community building, and provides a means for the narrator to reach out and communicate with a stranger. Describing a cathedral to the blind man, he sees it properly, maybe for the first time - his wife, on the other hand, is merely told that everything is ok, she is not invited into the community of 'blind' men. The image of the cathedral becomes the symbol of liberation in Carver's story - it is notable that the narrator finishes his drawing by adding the cathedral doors (61). The plot device of the Cathedral allows Carver to show how the narrator is liberated through communication, he no longer feels trapped inside his life, this is why the doors appear last - it is the final act of liberation to put on the symbol of freedom. It also is perhaps the moment when he comes to terms with his emotions - previously, they had been suppressed, or not realised, particularly in dealing with his wife. Carver uses a number of different symbols to carry the plot to its conclusion; the prison of the narrator's current life is contrasted with the freedom of the blind man, and also with the Cathedral which "Reach way up. Up and up. Towards the sky" (51). From being a rather unlikable person, the narrator travels to providing a service for a man he had looked down upon. By using symbols, strong characters, and the theme of liberation and imprisonment, Carver provides both his narrator, and the reader, with an epiphany, and allows the reader to understand that freedom from a dull routine is possible for everyone. Works Cited Kennedy, X. J. (2007) Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama 10th edition, New York, Pearson Longman, 2007. Read More