character analysis

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CHARACTER IN CARVER 'S CATHEDRAL

Generally drunk , boorish , self-centered , and callous characters do not draw readers into a story unless it is by some urge to see what damage they might do to other characters or themselves . Indeed , this may be the actual reason that so many readers continue to abide the main character 's selfish and unfeeling antics throughout Raymond Carver 's Cathedral ' The story 's narrator is a man so self-absorbed that he thinks only of his anxieties and possible inconveniences when

his wife 's blind male friend comes to visit . However , through extended conversation with Robert , the blind acquaintance , the husband eventually finds the ability to pull himself into some sense of self-awareness

Carver wastes no time in creating an extremely unlikable character in the husband and narrator of the story . He is initially presented as a friendless , hypercritical , sarcastic and unaccommodating man who should be lucky to have a wife at all . Kirk Nesset describes this character in his essay Insularity and self-enlargement in Raymond Carvers Cathedral ' Walled in by his own insecurities and prejudices , this narrator is sadly out of touch with his world and with himself , buffered by drink and pet and by the sad reality , as his wife puts it , that he has no `friends (116 . Her announcement that Robert will be visiting sends him into yet another self-pitiful , sulk-fest . He has only stereotypical views of blind individuals , admitting In the movies , the blind moved slowly and never...