Introduction

When an individual encounters a struggle to understand things, they step out of their comfort zone, allowing them to break their internal limitations. The struggle that revolves around a lack of understanding is defined as an individual’s limited perception and vision. A limited perception is where an individual doesn’t see the true understanding of elements in life. Such individuals show ignorance, and in time, will ignite them to step outside their comfort zone. This is caused by unexpected circumstances, causing them to change their thoughts and feelings about a subject matter and trying something new. Such examples may include trying out for a sport, socializing with people, or facing old fears and trauma. This happens as humans are innate to adapt to changes and do new things. This rare phenomena allows them to break their own internal limitations and by observing something based on their own perception. In addition, it will also change their initial behavior and expand their internal boundaries beyond their limits. Such a theme is well demonstrated in the short story, Cathedral, by Raymond Carver through the use of the narrator’s ignorance and lack of empathy. The theme lives within the text when the narrator is prejudiced against the blind man, by judging him off stereotypical  characteristics. Then, the narrator is asked to describe a cathedral to the blind man, a request he finds difficult to deliver. Afterwards, the narrator is asked to draw a cathedral, in which he finally sees the true beauty of it. Therefore, when a person encounters a struggle of perception, it eventually leads them to step out of their comfort zone, breaking their internal boundaries. 

Experience

Individuals experience a struggle to interpret and understand when they base their own perceptions on external observations. More often than not, the impact of ignorant individuals who judge people base their perceptions on stereotypes which are mostly false. In these cases, individuals do not understand the world they “see” based on their own observations, but external ones. As individuals are solely reliant on the observations of others, they have difficulty forming their own opinions. This is how they become prejudiced. In the short story by Raymond Carver, Cathedral, the narrator judges a blind man named Robert based on what he previously read in some article. Initially, when the narrator comes across Robert, he is bewildered by the man’s unique appearance. For example, he wasn’t wearing the stereotypical dark glasses, like he thought a blind person would have. He then watches Robert smoke a cigarette, and is perplexed on the assumption that blind men don’t smoke due to the lack of vision. This is best described in the quote, “I remembered having read somewhere that the blind didn’t smoke because, as speculation had it, they couldn’t see the smoke they exhaled. I thought I knew that much and that much only about blind people.” Evidently, the narrator displays his prejudice in the way he is irritated by the blind man for no reason. This quote also exemplifies how the narrator bases his core understanding off of something he read somewhere in the past. It is an uneducated understanding of a marginalized group of people. Carver uses repetition through his use of the word “blind” to emphasize the narrator’s attitude towards blind people. The tone of the narrator reveals his judgmental behavior as he feels discomfort around blind people. By using an external source, “I remembered having read somewhere that the blind didn’t smoke because, as speculation had it, they couldn’t see the smoke they exhaled…” the narrator exposes his own ignorance in attempting to understand things. Therefore, Carver shows that people who struggle to understand the world often base their perceptions off of uneducated observations, and unknowingly are prejudiced. 

Engage

When an individual is confronted by a situation that goes against their understanding, they engage by stepping out of their comfort zone. Usually, individuals accept a new understanding of things when they are confronted by a primary source of information. In this case, a man, whose only understanding of blind people came from an article he read in the past, came across a legitimate blind person for the first time. The curiosity of most people in such situations would motivate them to step out of their comfort zone to learn more. This human experience is exhibited in Carver’s short story, Cathedral, when the narrator is forced to describe a cathedral on the television to Robert, the blind man. He then thinks, “I stared hard at the shot of the cathedral on the TV. How could I even begin to describe it? But say my life depended on it. Say my life was being threatened by an insane guy who said I had to do it or else.” Ironically, this reveals the narrator’s inability to see himself. He is perplexed on how to describe a cathedral. The same way he is perplexed by his misperception of blind people. Carver uses hyperbole to show the discomfort the narrator experiences when he states, “Say my life was being threatened by an insane guy who said I had to do it or else.” This quote shows how the narrator exaggerated the circumstances to show how he is unable to form his own perception and put it into words. The hyperbole also emphasizes the narrator’s dilemma as he is challenged in making his own observations opposed to relying on alternative sources. The narrator’s discomfort and how he was approached with an unexpected circumstance caused him to step out of his comfort zone. Therefore, a person who is confronted by a primary source of information when stepping out of their comfort zone, they come to a new understanding, regardless of them feeling uncomfortable. 

Effect

The effect of stepping out of one’s comfort zone often leads to breaking away from their internal limitations. When one goes through such behavioral changes they often have an epiphany that helps them realize their misleading perceptions. By using an external observation to help justify their perception, they become too reliant and encounter adversity to “see” the true beauty of many things. The continuous struggle causes them to embrace changes in their perception, allowing them to step out of their comfort zone. Essentially, people are able to break away from their initial limitations and correct them. For example, a man from a small town in Idaho who has never travelled outside of his own county and has never seen an Indian in person, is going to be limited by their lack of knowledge about Indian people. If all he knew about India was the bad things he read in the newspaper about scammers from India, hypothetically, he would more than likely have some level of prejudice towards Indians. That is, until the man’s car breaks down one day and an Indian man stops to help him without asking for anything in return. This is precisely the message that Raymond Carver was trying to portray in Cathedral, when the narrator draws a cathedral from the television and encounters an epiphany when he says, “My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything. “It’s really something,” I said, ” This demonstrates how the narrator is enlightened by the fact that his previous misconceptions of blind people were wrong. Carver uses irony to show that the narrator can “see” the true beauty of the cathedral although his eyes are physically closed. When Robert asks him to draw, he pays close attention to the details of the cathedral, allowing him to see its true beauty without tarnishing it with his pessimism. This use of irony shows how the character comes to realise his flaws, which allows him to break away from his internal limitations. Initially, the narrator struggled with his own prejudices and could not understand certain things without resorting to a stereotypically uneducated source. In a moment of insightfulness, the narrator was able to leave his prejudiced views behind him by focusing on the object and all of its details. In doing so, he had an epiphany that changed his thinking. People always have epiphanies. Whether it is a man from a small town in Idaho who has never seen an Indian, or a man who has never met a blind person, epiphanies have the ability to make revolutionary changes not only on the individual level, but across the world. Therefore, Carver effectively demonstrates how leaving one’s comfort zone allows one to have an epiphany that ultimately breaks their former subconscious limitations. 

Conclusion

When an individual struggles to observe and understand something they have little previous knowledge about, they will often make a choice to confront or learn more. An individual who struggles to understand something will often rely on external sources of information that may not be educated or accurate. In turn, this has the potential to cultivate biassed or prejudiced opinions of things that people have never seen or experienced themselves. When that time comes, they are often forced to leave their comfort zone, as they are confronted with an unexpected situation that changes their thinking. Carver explicitly demonstrates this in his short story, Cathedral, through the use of the narrator’s epiphany, which showed him how flawed his previous perception of blind people was. Initially, the narrator judges the blind man through the use of an article he reads and the stereotypical characteristics it illustrates. This uneducated source of information is what originally tarnishes his perception of blind people, which grows into prejudice. Then, upon meeting a blind man in person for the first time, the narrator is puzzled to learn that what he previously thought of blind people was wrong. He is challenged further, when the blind man asks him to describe a cathedral, which reveals his inability to “see”. Finally, the narrator draws the cathedral and has an epiphany, which allows him to see his initial flaws and finally break free of his previously misleading perceptions. Indeed, the message of this story goes beyond the stereotypes towards blind people. It reveals how uneducated sources of information can be harmful to society when they are read by uneducated people who are susceptible to prejudice. If everyone in society educated themselves with information from primary sources and immersed themselves into cultures or societies different from their own, perhaps more people would have the ability to truly “see”. 

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