Verified Document

Power In Cathedral And Ethics People In Essay

Power in Cathedral and Ethics People in the position of power have the authority to influence the world around them. With this power should come responsibility. Those with the power to change the world must stand behind their actions. They have the responsibility to take ownership of their choices and they also have the implicit responsibility of bettering the lives of the people around them. In Carver's "Cathedral" and Pastan's "Ethics" are both short stories which deal with individuals with power and how those people utilize their positions responsibly or shirk their responsibility in favor of personal pleasure.

In Carver's "Cathedral," the story begins with the narrator informing the reader that he is uncomfortable with his impending visitor because the man is blind. This narrator is seemingly dismissive of everything; not only the blind man or his relationship with the man's wife, but dismissive of his wife's first marriage, of her poetry writing, and of her experience with the blind man feeling her face. Narrator looks down upon this blind man based on stereotypes from other...

He makes slights against the wife's first husband even refusing to name him. He also shows himself to have bigoted attitudes. Commenting on the blind man's dead wife, he says, "Her name was Beulah. Beulah! That's a name for a colored woman" (Carver 3). Since the husband is the white male who has his vision, he sees himself as superior to all the others around him. All he does is sit around his home and complain to his wife and drink and yet because of his prejudices to what he views are physical inferiorities, he can label himself as the more powerful entity.
In the story, it is really the blind man Robert and the wife who have the power. She is influenced by the male presence around her, even allowing her husband to convince her that she is not powerful. It is only after being given clear vision through her blind friend that she can see the world as it truly is. "My wife finally took her eyes off the blind man and looked at me. I had the feeling she didn't like what she saw" (Carver 7). This is the power shift in the story. Robert, the blind man, is the impetus for change and that makes the husband fear. He believes in his superiority but has no chance of holding onto it if there is any challenge. "I waited in vain to hear my name on my wife's sweet lips: 'And then my dear husband came into my life' -- something like that. But I heard nothing of the sort" (9). The narrator becomes angry when the wife and her friend discuss the past decade of their lives together like the old friends they are. As a blind man…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited:

Carver. "Cathedral." Print.

Pastan. "Ethics." Print.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Influences of Gaudi's Works
Words: 3787 Length: 12 Document Type: Research Paper

Gaudi's Works Antonio Gaudi was born 25th June 1852 and went on to be a known Spanish Catalan architect. Antonio Gaudi was a remarkable architect whose true value only came forward a while after he created the buildings. He has also been known as the Spanish Catalan and the symbol for Catalian Modernism. Just as the people of the city were attempting to make their own mark in science and

Occult Representations in Film the
Words: 3320 Length: 10 Document Type: Essay

Occult films participate and can influence the direction of such discourse as a continuation and transformation of the discourse in literature regarding the occult and the literature regarding film as communication and discourse. The occult is found is books. The occult is found in small, darkened shops off the beaten path. The occult can be hiding in plain sight as part of institutions or traditions that we make find safe,

Reagan & the 80s Movies
Words: 4752 Length: 17 Document Type: Term Paper

Many young people voted for Reagan as he represented rebellion against the authority figures in society but was a rebellion characterized by valiance and effectuated through skillful communication. The approval rating of Reagan was approximately 42% when 1982 began but dropped to the record low 35% later that same year. The U.S. entered a recession. If one is to set their focus upon obtaining a chance at being the

Nature and Human
Words: 2016 Length: 6 Document Type: Term Paper

landscape studies pioneer, John Brinckerhoff Jackson, studied the contemporary landscape - common, everyday places where we live, work and play - for the clues it provides to American culture. In 1964, the American Congress passed the Wilderness Act, thereby protecting over 100 million acres of public land from development. Wilderness was "recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself

Gothic Period Cultural and Construction
Words: 4930 Length: 17 Document Type: Essay

William of Occam formulated the principle of Occam's Razor, which held that the simplest theory that matched all the known facts was the correct one. At the University of Paris, Jean Buridan questioned the physics of Aristotle and presaged the modern scientific ideas of Isaac Newton and Galileo concerning gravity, inertia and momentum when he wrote: ...after leaving the arm of the thrower, the projectile would be moved by an impetus

Management and Leadership Strategies Were
Words: 5635 Length: 16 Document Type: Essay

Specifically, Caesar masterfully showed how through building alliances one may achieve power and rise to the top of the leadership tier even in a group or society as vast as the Ancient Roman Empire (Abbott, 1901, p.385). The Roman Empire also provides an example of organizational systems within the public domain through the Republican system. In the Roman Republican system of government, one man did not have the power to

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now