Individual and Social Transformation in Cathedral and The Laramie Project - Assignment Example

Individual and Social Transformation in “Cathedral” and The Laramie Project The modern world with its civil rights legislation should be discrimination-free, but two works underscore that this belief is a myth. In “Cathedral,” Raymond Carver exposes individual hypocrisy. Moisés Kaufman directed The Laramie Project, depicting struggles with hate crimes against gay people. This essay explores which work affected me the most by comparing and contrasting some of their elements. “Cathedral” has significantly affected me because of the effectiveness of the first-person viewpoint in expressing intense individual transformation, while The Laramie Project had the least impact because many people expressed mere opinions out of pity, but they did not profoundly change as individuals and as a society in any way. These works are similar because they point out the imperfections of people through dramatic irony. The people of Laramie are unaware of their social problems. Many of them think that Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney are like bad apples. They assert that Laramie does not grow people who hate gays, especially when they think that they live in a society where they live and let live. The narrator of “Cathedral” does not see anything wrong with his beliefs and attitudes too. He asked his wife if Robert’s wife is a “Negro” (Carver 12), and when his wife gets angry, he says that he is “just asking” (Carver 14). The indifference to his racism becomes a source of irony in the story. Despite the prevailing ignorance of the characters, the audience understands the difference between what the people say and what they actually feel. The narrator of “Cathedral,” for instance, does not initially recognize that he has an unsatisfying life. His conversation with Robert, however, reveals his life’s frustrations: “Did I like my work? (I didn't.) Was I going to stay with it? (What were the options?)” (Carver 45). He knows nothing about his life, but the audience understands that he has an empty life. As for the film, the Laramie townspeople keep on saying that they are the kind of community who lives and let live. Yet, Marge Murray (Frances Sternhagen) finds it acceptable that people “poke” or “smack” gays on the face (The Laramie Project). The audience recognizes that the people do not know who they are at all. The story and film expose the disparity between self-perceptions and reality. Apart from the exploration of imperfections through dramatic irony, “Cathedral” and Laramie Project explore the same theme of prejudice and discrimination, but the former focuses on racism, while the latter emphasizes gender discrimination. The narrator of “Cathedral” has racist prejudice because of how he sees black people. When he learns that Robert’s wife’s name is Beulah, he notes to himself: “Beulah! That's a name for a colored woman” (Carver 11). His tone is sarcastic, as if he finds it a paradox to hear a religious black name. He also uses the term “Negro,” a disparaging term for black people. Clearly, he has racist beliefs about black people, which might be the biggest reason why he instantly dislikes the blind man. The Laramie Project dissects discrimination too, particularly gender discrimination, where it uses a “documentary” approach in revealing Laramie’s entrenched prejudice against gay people. Jedadiah Schultz (Jeremy Davies), for instance, has parents who believe that homosexuality is a sin (The Laramie Project). The religious foundation of bigotry is not rare, but a blanket that wraps around many Laramie heads and hearts. Furthermore, using a first-person perspective, Carver describes the superficiality of how people evaluate others because of their prejudice. The narrator pities Beulah for not receiving “the smallest compliment from her beloved” (Carver 18). He does not realize that women do not want compliments about their physical attractiveness, but respect for their aspirations. Furthermore, Carver proves that stereotyping is an inaccurate way of understanding people’s identities. One of the narrator’s preconceived notions about blacks is that they do not smoke, but he is wrong: “This blind man filled his ashtray and my wife emptied it” (Carver 42). Stereotyping turns people into ignorant beings with no reality of human complexity. The Laramie Project employs numerous third-person perspectives to demonstrate the depth of gender prejudice in Laramie. Jen Malmskog (Summer Phoenix) asserts that her town is precisely “the kind of town” that raises gay killers (The Laramie Project). “Cathedral” and Laramie Project assert that modern life is not hate and prejudice-free. Despite these similarities, “Cathedral” and The Laramie Project are different in points of view, where what I liked the most about the former is that the narrator acquires the epiphany of humanity, while in the latter, many people did not have any profound intellectual and attitudinal change. Carver shows that the cathedral is the symbol of humanity’s greatness, which every human being possesses. The narrator learns that all people are the same inside. First, blindness is a symbol, which stresses, that when people are blind to self acceptance and acceptance of diversity, they cannot be happy. The narrator admires Robert for knowing how to eat: “The blind man had right away located his foods, he knew just where everything was on his plate” (Carver 44). Eating while blind is a symbol for eating without prejudice for oneself and others. Furthermore, Carver indicates that humanity is a work in progress. Robert comments that beautiful cathedrals take several lifetimes to build: “The men who began their life's work on them, they never lived to see the completion of their work… they're no different from the rest of us, right?” (Carver 95). He expresses the importance of sharing positive values and attitudes across generations, as people work on their humanity. Moreover, the story effectively shows that to change as a society, people have to work together. Robert informs the narrator’s wife: “We're drawing a cathedral. Me and him are working on it” (Carver 123). The story shares a solution to racism. To work together, they must stop seeing their differences and find their common interests. The narrator cannot open his eyes at the end of the story because he finally sees who he is: “My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn't feel like I was inside anything” (Carver 134). He learns that he is a human being who needs grace, the grace of humanity. On the contrary, The Laramie Project is a mush of different opinions that signify pity, not a deep and rational understanding of what happened. They did not intellectually discuss their social problems, by dismissing what happened as either an “incident” or a product of Shepard’s sinful “lifestyle” (The Laramie Project). One of the gay male ranchers expresses his frustration that one year after Shepard’s death, anti-hate laws have not been passed in Laramie or Wyoming: “What's come out of it that's concrete and lasting?” (The Laramie Project). I feel disgusted too that nothing tangible came right after the murder of an innocent gay youth. The town’s pity did not do justice for Shepard at all. Thus, the film did not significantly affect me because of the lack of resolution and enduring changes in people, while the narrator of “Cathedral” changes from a passive and empty shell to a human being. “Cathedral” is more effective in expressing the depth of individual transformation through perspective, symbolism, and irony, while The Laramie Project lacks impact because the people did not attain social transformation. Instead of being changed, bigots remained stubbornly the same. Shepard only publicized Laramie’s existence in the map, but he did not successfully change them from within. “Cathedral” and its first-person perspective, on the opposite, take people inside the narrator’s mind and life. The intimate viewpoint enables me to understand how he changed and what for. He changed from being nothing to being fully human; he transformed for the better and for life. Works Cited Carver, Raymond. “Cathedral.” 1983. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. The Laramie Project. Dir. Moisés Kaufman. Perf. Christina Ricci, Steve Buscemi, and Kathleen Chalfant. HBO Films, 2002. Film. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. Read More