“Cathedral” by Raymond Carver is a short story about a blind man who comes to visit his wife’s friend. The narrator is initially uncomfortable around the blind man, but eventually comes to appreciate him. “Girls at War” by Chinua Achebe is a short story about a group of girls in Nigeria during the war. One of the girls, Nene, is blinded by a bomb. Despite her blindness, Nene continues to fight for her country. These two stories show that blindness does not have to be a hindrance. Blindness can actually be a strength that allows people to see things in a different way.
The motif of blindness appears in several short works by Raymond Carver (1938-1988) and Chinua Achebe (1931-), notably “Cathedral” and “Girls at War.” Physical blindness characterizes Robert, the man who comes to visit, in “The Cathedral,” yet his mental vision is superior to others’. When he visits his former employee’s home for a couple of days, Robert understands the consequences of his actions.
The visit is not just about business, but about connecting with someone he once knew. In “Girls at War” blindness takes on a different meaning. The blindness that is being referred to is the blindness of seeing the real reason for why the girls are fighting. They believe they are fighting for their country, when in reality, they are being used as child soldiers. The blindness here is more figurative, but it is still present nonetheless. In both stories, blindness plays an important role in how the characters see themselves and the world around them.
Blindness can be interpreted in many ways, but in “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver and “Girls at War” by Chinua Achebe, it takes on two very different meanings. In “Cathedral,” blindness is literal, while in “Girls at War” blindness is figurative. In “Cathedral,” the main character, Robert, is physically blind, but he sees the world in a different way than most people do. He is able to see beyond the physical world and into the spiritual world. This is seen when he talks about his experience with God. He says, “I remembered something else too.
It was like I had been blindness, and then suddenly I could see.” His blindness has given him a greater understanding of the world around him. In “Girls at War,” the blindness refers to the girls not being able to see the reality of their situation. They are blinded by their own beliefs and ideals. They think they are fighting for their country, when in reality they are being used as child soldiers. This blindness ultimately leads to their downfall.
The blind man’s wife is a white woman, and he is having an affair with her. He makes no effort to conceal his infidelity from the narrator. The plot thickens when we discover that Robert has been having an affair with the wife of the narrator’s dead partner.
This shows that the husband is not perfect either. The blind man has to be comfortable with the idea of marijuana in order to partake in it and he is. This could be seen as a victory for Robert. The husband may have felt like he won something by being able to offer it to him but really, it was a good experience for both men because they were both open to new things.
The story “Girls at War” is about a civil war in an unnamed African country. It is told from the perspective of a young girl who is witnessing the effects of the war on her community. The war has brought death and destruction to her village. Many people have been killed, including her father. The girl’s mother is now struggling to care for her and her sister. The girl is also struggling to understand what is happening around her. She is confused and scared by the violence she sees. However, she is also determined to survive. The war has changed her life forever.
Robert is receptive to new activities, although he has never done it; he gives it a go. The wife’s vision is lacking compared to the narrator’s. The narrator’s vision isn’t clouded by what he sees, as Robert does not rely on his inner vision to guide him because he is blind. Because both of these people have a sense that Robert’s wife lacks, they get along swimmingly and hit it off from the start. When the wife first introduces Robert to her husband, you can see how she lacks sight.
She tells him that Robert is “a blind man”. The husband immediately has a mental image of what a blind man looks like, and he is not sure if he wants to meet him. However, once he meets Robert and talks to him, he realizes that blindness is not a bad thing. In fact, it is something that can be overcome with the help of others.
“Girls at War” by Chinua Achebe also deals with blindness, but in a different way. In this story, blindness represents the loss of innocence. The girls in the story are all young and have never experienced war before. They are blind to the horrors that war brings. When they see the dead bodies of soldiers and civilians, they are shocked and horrified. They realize that war is not a game, and that it can have very real and devastating consequences.
Both of these stories deal with blindness in different ways, but both ultimately show that blindness can be overcome with the help of others. In “Cathedral”, blindness is overcome through the friendship of two people who share a vision that is not possessed by the wife. In “Girls at War”, blindness is overcome through the girls’ realization of the true nature of war.
His wife informs him that he should ask the conductor what side of the train he sat on. His wife scolds him for asking a question that would be meaningless to ask a blind person, because regardless of which side he sits on, his perspective is equally beautiful. His wife is unaware that her husband is attempting to engage in conversation. Because he has almost certainly never spoken with a blind individual before, he has no idea what to say. Her perception of reality inhibits her inner vision’s capacity to recognize his attempts at politeness.
The narrator blindness also causes him to be unaware of the social cues he is missing. The story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver is about blindness, but it is also about learning to see. The narrator is a man who is blind, but he learns to see through the experience of meeting a blind man named Robert. The story “Girls at War” by Chinua Achebe is also about blindness, but in this case it is about the blindness of war. The girls in the story are blind to the horrors of war, and they learn to see through the experience of losing their innocence.