What do the tapes symbolize in Cathedral?
What do the tapes symbolize in Cathedral?
Audiotapes. The audiotapes that Robert and the narrator’s wife send back and forth to each other represent the kind of understanding and empathy that has nothing to do with sight. Robert’s relationship with the narrator’s wife is much deeper than anything the narrator can understand.
What is the irony in Cathedral?
Renowned author, Raymond Carver, skillfully weaves dramatic and situational irony throughout his short stories, Cathedral, Neighbors, and They’re Not Your Husband. Situational irony is when the opposite of what is expected to happen occurs. In Cathedral and They ‘re Not Your Husband, situational irony is amply evident.
What is the meaning of the short story Cathedral?
The Difference between Looking and Seeing He looks at his house and wife, and he looks at Robert when he arrives. Even though Robert can’t physically see the narrator’s wife, he understands her more deeply than the narrator does because he truly listens.
What is the conflict in the story Cathedral?
In Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral,” the relationship between the narrator and his wife is one of distanced silence and isolation. This is caused by the narrator’s constant drinking and smoking of marijuana as well as his wife’s responses to feelings of loneliness.
What lesson did the narrator learn about rationality in Cathedral?
When the narrator draws a cathedral with the blind man’s hand clasped over his, he discovers that knowledge can be absorbed in ways he had never before considered.
What does the ending of Cathedral mean?
Carver finishes “Cathedral” with a “zero ending,” leaving the narrator with his eyes closed, imagining the cathedral he has just drawn with Robert. The narrator has not become a new person or achieved any kind of soul-changing enlightenment.
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.
Why does Robert the blind man in the story visit the narrator’s home?
Why does Robert, the blind man in the story, visit the narrator’s home? He is visiting his deceased wife’s in-laws who live in the region. How did the narrator’s wife attempt to commit suicide when married to her first husband? She swallowed a mix of pills and alcohol.
What is the lesson in Cathedral?
Cathedral teaches many lessons. While reading, it felt like Raymond Carver meant to teach his readers, that there is good in every situation a person face’s in life. A person may not see the good at the moment; the good will be seen at some point with time.
What is the message of the 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 did the narrator learn in Cathedral?
The narrator learns from Robert that it is possible to be able to see without understanding and to understand without seeing. Robert has never seen the narrator’s wife, but he knows all about her thoughts and feelings, which the narrator doesn’t.
What does the narrator realize by the end of the story cathedral?
At the end of the story, when Robert guides the narrator in drawing the cathedral with his eyes closed, the narrator revels in the strangeness of the experience, and his bewilderment makes this transcendent moment more poignant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSedy1it9I0
