The story described by Raymond Carver in his literary work Cathedral sheds light on the changes that are taking place in humanity. The author wrote this story in 1981, but its relevance is not lost today. A protagonist is a man with whom specific changes occur during the story. He has a conversation with a blind man, Robert, his wife’s friend. From this conversation, the reader can learn about the arrangement of human thoughts and better understand himself.
Before determining the literary devices of Cathedral, it might be useful to emphasize that it is a short story in which Carver was able to accommodate a variety of essential thoughts related to human nature (Stefanescu, 2008). In a short situation, the author reveals the protagonist’s changes in his perception of life. Therefore, Carver clarifies that fourteen pages of Cathedral are enough to make the reader think about how he considers life.
The first literary device to highlight is the dialogue between the protagonist and the blind man. The author chooses a conversation between people to show how two individuals can perceive the world and life differently. Comparing their viewpoints, character traits, and preconceptions about life leads to important conclusions that the protagonist makes at the end of the Cathedral. In addition, such an approach would be more interesting for the reader since when comparing different opinions, the person can observe their positive and negative sides and get important food for thought.
The author’s next literary device throughout the literary work is short, precise sentences. According to Carver (2018), “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (p. 1). Such sentences lack special coloring and do not have many adjectives and other minor sentences. They clearly express the idea and significantly shorten the literary work’s text. At the same time, the text does not lose meaning, and the reader receives essential information by reading a small amount of the story.
Another device of the Cathedral story is the conversational tone of the narrator (Gale, Cengage Learning, 2015). This technique is a continuation from what was described in the last paragraph about short sentences. However, it is worth paying particular attention to the narrator’s proximity to the reader. Thanks to the informal narration, the reader can better follow the course of the main character’s thoughts and changes in his mood (Gale, Cengage Learning, 2015). It applies both to the protagonist’s ordinary feelings and whims, such as his unwillingness to see a blind guest in his home, and to further internal changes in him. The tone of the dialogue helps the reader better understand the protagonist’s observations of blind Robert.
One of the critical literary techniques Carver used in Cathedral is the symbol. At the end of the work, Robert and the protagonist draw the cathedral together. This drawing process becomes a symbol of the changed feelings of the protagonist toward the world. He first helps Robert draw and guides his hand with his own. During this time, the protagonist paints a cathedral according to his perception of the world. The story culminates with Robert asking him to close his eyes and move his fingers. The drawing here becomes a symbol of changing feelings. At that moment, the hero realizes that the most important thing is that one cannot see with eyes but can only feel with the heart.
References
Carver, R. (1983). Cathedral. Knopf.
Gale, Cengage Learning. (2015). A study guide for Raymond Carver’s Cathedral. Gale, Cengage Learning.
Stefanescu, A. (2008). Postmodernism and minimalism in Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral”. GRIN Verlag.