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.
Final line when the narrator experiences an epiphany.
Raymond Carver’s short story, Cathedral, has a lesson that many people can take from. There is always good in every individual, and they can understand this not by their eyes, but by their heart. With that, they can choose their own path for they want to do with their lives, but this can only be done with a positive attitude rather than a negative one. Take the narrator for example: He is an ignorant individual that thinks highly of himself with a negative mindset. He is someone that can get jealous really easily and he doesn’t think about others. Due to this, the narrator doesn’t achieve anything that he’s satisfied with like his occupation and he lives his life with regret. On the other hand, we have the old man, Robert, that’s living his life to the fullest. Despite being blind, he found happiness in his life with a positive attitude and mindset. He didn’t let his disability stop him from what he wanted to achieve. Towards the end of the short story, Robert enlightens the narrator by having him draw a cathedral with his eyes closed. This leads to the narrator having an epiphany in which he can see what he is making with his eyes closed rather than having them opened. That is the lesson that I’ve learned from the story.
In my life, I’ve always been told to get high grades, get good marks and I will have a good life. I feel like most of us have had this drilled into our heads at some point. I believe that we have to approach these challenges with a healthy mentality and we have to be motivated in order to succeed. We can see that with Robert in the story. He is a blind man but he got married, travelled, and despite losing his wife, he’s still someone who thinks positively. He doesn’t allow his disability to become a deterrent for his desires, and due to that, he lives a happy life. I try my best to become someone that is always positive but that can be challenging sometimes. I am often challenged by my parent’s standards in many aspects in life, but I try to change that by enjoying what I’m doing.
This can be compared to the narrator. As stated before; the narrator initially starts out as someone who is bigoted and ignorant. He experiences his life to be something that’s meaningless and there’s no purpose to it. The author creates this attitude through his sarcastic tone and humorous lines. Moreover, as we progress near the end of the story, Carver develops a sense of irony when the narrator experiences a spiritual awakening by drawing a cathedral with his eyes closed. Also, the blind man teaches him how to see despite being blind himself. Towards that end, he becomes someone who is enlightened to a new perspective of life which changes the way he wishes to live.
We can take this lesson from Carver and apply it to our own lives. We shouldn’t let anything stop us from living a meaningful life, and start by creating a positive lifestyle and philosophy. People who chase their desires without being pulled back by negativity are often successful and Carver shows that through Robert.
Image Reference:
AwakenTheGreatnessWithin. 2021. 4 Ways You Can Find A Meaningful Purpose In Life!. [online] Available at: <https://www.awakenthegreatnesswithin.com/4-ways-you-can-find-a-meaningful-purpose-in-life/> [Accessed 29 November 2021].
Paine, M., 2021. Notre Dame Cathedral Drawing – Michelle Arnold Paine. [online] Michelle Arnold Paine. Available at: <https://www.michellepaine.com/notre-dame-cathedral-drawing/> [Accessed 29 November 2021].
Nytimes.com. 2021. Stress Can Make You Sick. Take Steps to Reduce It. (Published 2019). [online] Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/08/well/mind/stress-can-make-you-sick-take-steps-to-reduce-it.html> [Accessed 29 November 2021].
re metaphorically, she had descended into a cloud of darkness. This darkness that her mind put herself in, created an illusion where the bountiful world was right in front of her felt as if it was nothing. She was focused on the darkness, so she paid no mind to the positive influences in her life. After a while of struggling with this painful scene, she began to gradually realize and take in how beautiful the life she create is. Now, my aunt is “seeing the light” instead of the darkness that once surrounded her life. Her postpartum was not a switch that she could just turn on and off– it did take much strength to overcome the issue. But in the end, for her, it was all worth it. Because she found her light in the midst of the darkness.