What is the conflict in the story cathedral?
The primary conflict in “Cathedral” is the narrator’s interior conflict over his feelings of loneliness, prejudice, and inferiority.
Is the narrator’s jealousy of Robert irrational?
Carmen Gilmore Cathedral January 27, 2020 jealously of Robert is not necessarily irrational because as a spouse, you would feel somewhat jealous that your partner was so excited to see another man that you never even met.
What is the point of view of Cathedral?
Carver uses a first-person narrator to tell the story of “Cathedral” to emphasize the bewildering aspects of the transcendent moment that he relates in the story. When Robert arrives, the narrator does his best to make sense of him. …
What does Cathedral symbolize?
The cathedral symbolizes to both the blind man and the narrator in Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” the possibility to apprehend a whole new dimension of reality. Through drawing the cathedral with Robert, the narrator is able to gain a glimpse into a completely different world, one that he’d previously never seen.
What does the ending of Cathedral mean?
“Cathedral” concerns the change in one man’s understanding of himself and the world, and Carver ends the story at exactly the moment when this change flickers in the narrator’s mind. In fact, the narrator’s final words, “It’s really something,” reveal him to be the same curt, inarticulate man he’s always been.
What is the significance of the narrator’s decision to keep his eyes closed at the end of Cathedral?
As he keeps his eyes closed, he experiences something of Robert’s permanent condition, and at the same time undergoes a kind of epiphany where he feels that he is not “inside anything.” Ironically, the narrator moves from finding blindness an incomprehensible condition that he mocks to embracing it and finding a sense …
What is the significance of the title Cathedral?
The cathedral in Raymond Carver’s story “Cathedral” symbolizes an opportunity for the narrator and his guest to discover common ground and “see” things in a new light. While Robert gets a clear impression of what a cathedral looks like, the narrator gains an understanding of what it means to be empathetic.
What is the theme in Cathedral?
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; some are more successful than others.
What is the narrator’s epiphany in Cathedral?
When the narrator draws a cathedral with Robert and closes his eyes, he has an epiphany during which he can see more than he ever could with his eyes open. As a result, his description of the cathedral takes on a more human element, which liberates the narrator and allows him to truly see for the first time.
Is Robert in Cathedral a flat or round character?
Robert is the other main character of the story. He is round but static.
What does Robert do to the narrator at ease?
In order to ease the narrator, Robert instructs him to find paper and a pen so that he can feel his hand while he is drawing it. This would make it easier for the blind man to envision how the cathedral actually looks like.
Who is Robert in the cathedral?
Robert is an insightful, compassionate man who takes the time to truly listen to others, which helps him to “see” them better than he could with his eyes. Robert and the narrator’s wife have been listening to each other for the past ten years through the audiotapes they send back and forth.
How does the wife in the story cathedral know Robert?
The wife and Robert talk about things that have happened to them in the past ten years, while the narrator occasionally tries to join in. He learns that Robert and Beulah had run an Amway distributorship and that Robert is a ham radio operator. When Robert asks the narrator questions, he makes only short responses.
Why are Robert and Beulah named but not the narrator and his wife?
Robert and Beulah are named because they are more fully realized characters than the narrator and his wife. The narrator apparently has no friends, and the wife’s only close friend seems to be Robert; the narrator and his wife don’t even seem to be friends with each other.