Zoe Rubens
AP English P5
New Criticism Cathedral
Out of Touch
When
people are out of touch with their world around them many problems can
unfold. Miscommunication, anger, and
judgment are only some of the many consciences that are caused by being unaware
and uninformed. The narrator in is the
perfect example to demonstrate how closed mindedness and distortion negatively
impact your relationships. Raymond Carver’s The
Cathedraldemonstrates the how out of touch with reality the narrator is
through the use of literary devices.
The narrator is
removed from reality because he bases his knowledge after semi-reliable
sources. After the narrator admitted his dislike for blind people he admits to
himself that his “idea of blindness came from the movies,” (Carver, Cathedral)
By using the word “Idea” the speaker is admitting that he was never sure of his
preconceived notions about blind people.
Ideas are so often viewed as the positive result of intelligence and
curiosity, yet the speaker’s idea was formed from closed mindedness and
naivetés. This creates a polar
juxtaposition that only illuminates the inexperience of the speaker showing
that his idea was no more than a notion that media exposed him too. Likewise movies are fake, even when based off
of a true story aspects of it become distorted.
Yet he used this distortedness to form an opinion in the real
world. He used false representations and
stereotypes to influence his reality.
His tone is apologetic implying that he is guilty for never taking the
time to educate himself and believe what he had seen from movies. His tone also indicates that he has never met
a blind person.In this sense the speaker is out of reality and even with his
seeing eyes he cannot actually see the truth in front of him because of his
one-sided intelligence.
Again
the speaker shows how out of touch he is with reality. After the speaker learns
about how close his wife and the blind man are, and how she shares things with
him that she has never shared with anyone before, the narrator becomes
increasingly jealous of the blind man and even questions their
relationship. His wife screams, “Are you
crazy? Have you flipped or something?”(Carver, Cathedral). His wife’s tone is obviously annoyed and
upset. This suggests that she is offended
by her husband’s accusations as well as insulted that he would think her
capable of cheating. Her double question
infers that she is frazzled and that there could be a deeper problem within
their relationship. The word crazy is often associated with losing one’s mind;
this again shows how out of touch the narrator is with his surroundings. The
word crazy could infer that the narrator is both unaware of his wife’s feelings
but also her where-abouts. His
accusations are upsetting to his wife because he is so unaware of what is
really happening in the relationship between her and the blind man. The
narrator’s reality is so biased, and this makes him look
more insensitive and narrow minded than he truly is. His lack of touch with
reality makes the narrator have a disconnect with his wife and causes him and
his wife unhappiness and problems.
When
people are out of touch with reality more harm comes than good. Miscommunication, anger, and judgment are
some of these problems and they affect many different aspects of day to day
life. Raymond Carver’s The Cathedral demonstrates the how out
of touch with reality the narrator is through the use of the literary devices
tone, diction and symbolism.
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