Paperbackpages, raymond carver essays. And the second fact is, of course, the emphasis given to the different elements of what Marin considers: in some sense, the sad fact of Geraldo's death is subsidiary to the sad facts of his actual raymond carver essays as an illegal worker in a foreign country, who will die without ever raymond carver essays his family again. His writing was always classified as postmodern, however, as with most authors, his writing changed from his early work to his later works. The narrator in the work of Raymond Carver entitled "Cathedral" is a complex and sympathetic character who is unaware of his own limitations and essentially unhappy even though he is incapable of articulating that unhappiness and learns from a blind man that unless one is aware of their limitations that those limitations cease to exist. Biblical Texts While Innovation Is Words: Length: 2 Pages Document Type: Essay Paper :
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Before the egoist narrator meets the blind man, Bub is so closed-minded, raymond carver essays, jealous, and materialistic that he does not want to help someone in need and he does not empathize with the hardships others endure. However, after Bub communicates with Robert and engineers an emotional connection, he is no longer limited by his former characteristics. Through this emotional link, raymond carver essays, Robert assists Bub in opening his mind to the spiritual world and feeling empathy for others. The reader learns that the narrator, Bub, raymond carver essays, is initially materialistic, emotionally disconnected, and raymond carver essays. Bub focuses on the physical aspects of the world and just what is on the outside.
This leads the reader to infer that Bub believes that he will find some sort of emotional fulfillment for his empty personality by focusing on material things. This quote shows that the narrator is not only materialistic, but he is also very narrow-minded, in the sense that he has no ability to believe in something greater than himself. Prior raymond carver essays dinner, the narrator lets his closed-minded personality take the lead and he believes in raymond carver essays discriminations about blind people. He ends up drinking and smoking along with Bub as well. This quote also means that he values interactions with people and the experiences that he encounters. Also, because of his blindness, Robert has to be open-minded. Learning never ends. This quote shows that Robert tries to understand as much of the world as he can in order to gain a similar experience to those who are not impaired.
Because Raymond carver essays is blind, he has to live his life slightly differently than others and in turn, he has different focuses and different views on what is most important. While watching TV, Robert asks Bub to help elaborate and explain every detail of a cathedral to him, because Robert has no clear interpretations of a cathedral. As a result, Robert wants to draw a raymond carver essays with Bub, hoping that he can show Bub how to have an emotional relationship and show empathy, all the while making Bub think that he is helping Robert to see when it is actually the other way around, raymond carver essays. This opens the door even wider so the narrator can have major changes. As they draw, Bub is gradually becoming less disconnected and more open to the rest of the world.
He is telling the reader that Bub does not think that he can open up to the world, specifically the spiritual world. But this will all change because Bub is transitioning from being materialistic and intolerant to becoming more welcoming in all aspects of life and less focused on the physical, raymond carver essays. Robert is trying to force Bub to look from a different perspective, the inside. Although it may seem like it is just a detail for the drawing, the people raymond carver essays Robert asks Bub to draw represent happiness and they are quite literally, people. The cathedral that they are drawing is not only a building now, but it is a symbol for where they can find comfort and raymond carver essays. After the narrator finishes drawing the cathedral, he exhibits an extreme change in his perspective.
He is now trying to show empathy to Robert and to others. His new emotions and experiences are filling his life, unlike the material things in the past. When the narrator broadens his comfort zone, he is experimenting with the spiritual raymond carver essays and challenging his previous notions which leads to him becoming more content with himself and his connections with the individuals around him. Throughout the story, Carver is proposing that emotional ties can permit individuals to have profound convictions and spiritual beliefs and in turn, can lead one to become more empathetic. When the narrator draws the cathedral with Robert, he acknowledges things greater than himself and he opens himself up to the spiritual world.
Bub changes from being materialistic, superficial, and closed-minded to being open-minded, spiritual, and emotionally connected to his life. In turn, he will have closer relationships with the people around him, specifically his wife, and he will also find more happiness because he will be focusing on his relationships with others and with himself. Menu Study Resources Essays Essay Outlines Essay Topics Lectures Assignments Research Papers Literature Study Guides Subjects Science Biology Microbiology Math History Homework Help Blog Donate a paper. APA MLA Harvard Vancouver StudyBoss, raymond carver essays. June Raymond Carver Cathedral Essay.
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Carver began his career as a writer as a poet but is more well-known for his prowess in the art of short stories, for which he is widely regarded as the preeminent storyteller of his time. Carver himself is often quoted as saying: "I began as a poet, my first publication was a poem. So I suppose on my tombstone I'd be very pleased if they put 'Poet and short- story writer -- and occasional essayist' in that order. He married early at the age of 19 and though he stayed married for twenty years, Carver himself said that they knocked around from town to town and job to job: "We were always looking for something better.
Bibliography About the Author. Raymond Carver. October 5, Off Course Web site. Raymond Carver is a writer who is known for a distinct style and also for distinct themes. The style is what is usually refers to as 'minimalist. hat is most significant about his subjects is that they are not significant. Rather than focus on anything obviously meaningful, Carver focuses on the realities of the average life, not dressing up the details, but instead focusing on the gritty details that make it real. The stories also tend to focus on issues like loss and violence and drunkenness and rarely provide a happy ending.
Each of these distinctive features of Carver's stories can be traced to his own life, with the themes and styles representing Carver's own experiences and his observations of people around him. In this way, Carver's stories are largely autobiographical. Before considering how Carver's life…. Works Cited Carver, R. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. New York: Vintage Books, Clarke, G. Graham Clarke. New York: St. Martin's, Garaty, J. American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, Gentry, M. Conversations With Raymond Carver. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, Carver Raymond Carver's greater maturity of symbolism and theme in "A Small, Good Thing," as opposed to "The Bath" Both the short stories "The Bath" by Raymond Carver and "A Small, Good Thing," are tales about sudden, tragic and meaningless death.
However, while superficially the two stories may revolve around similar themes and plot devices, the longer, latter tale of "A Small, Good, Thing," is ultimately the more thematically redemptive of the two and the more mature expression of a holistic philosophy about life and healing than is the more sparse and harsher "The Bath. Beyond the concrete events that the tales tell as they unfold, both stories concern the apparently arbitrary methods by which individuals are taken away from those who care for them. A child can die right before his…. Raymond Carver Teenage sexual frustration and repressed anger pervade Raymond Carver's short story "Nobody Said Anything.
The story begins and ends with tense moments at home, during which mother and father fight furiously while neglecting their two children. The parents do not take their anger out on the kids through overt violence, but they nevertheless emotionally neglect their children, saying nothing to address their feelings. The adolescent narrator struggles to impress his parents, especially his father, by catching a monstrous fish. However, his quest for attention is thwarted and only results in his getting scolded. The fish anecdote serves as a means to indirectly address the narrator's pain; it is a convenient metaphor for divorce, and the disgusting imagery of the…. New York: Random House, Fathers Life, by Raymond Carver [ The relationship between fathers and their sons is difficult, as this essay captures effectively while still managing to be poignant and meaningful.
It is clear Carver loved his father, and wanted to share him with the world, and he does it eloquently in this essay that is as much about him as it is about his father. My Father's Life Raymond Carver writes about his father's live in this moving essay, and he shows how different life can be for succeeding generations. Clearly, Carver is making his living doing something he loves, but he makes it clear his father was never that lucky. He writes, "I don't think he dreamed much. I believe he was simply looking for steady work at decent pay. Steady work was meaningful work" Carver. Carver writes with love…. Serious Talk by Raymond Carver -- or, as Carver might have entitled this essay: "Although not much talking takes place, the story's theme certainly is serious.
There is a constant ironic tension between what the reader thinks will happen, and what is delivered by the tone and by the evolving plot of the story. The characters also have their expectations raised that something will happen to break the unhappy monotony of their lives, expectations that are quickly dashed. Irony may be defined "as a difference between the way something appears and what is actually true. Random House. New York, Koehne, David. Conducted April 15, Accessed June 23, Phil Carson's Raymond Carver Homepage. Raymond Carver Biography. Last updated August , Accessed June 23, Since a short story is a work of fiction, a product of the imagination, how does an author create the illusion that what is transpiring in the narrative seems 'realistic' to the reader?
Why do some works of fiction seem more realistic than other works of fiction? The short story "A Small Good Thing" by Raymond Carver seems like a realistic work of fiction and thus is an excellent way to answer these questions. Carver's story tells the tale of a young boy who is hit by a car near the day of his birthday. It relates the effects this tragedy has upon the boy's parents. Through the use of extremely mundane but specific details, simple and action-oriented characterization of the major protagonists, and very simple and spare prose, Carver creates a sense of a realistic story, even though the end of the tale has a slightly surrealistic quality….
Most apparent of these symbols is the 'turning of the doorknob,' which signifies the impending death of the Mailman, being a cancer patient. Another symbol used in the poem is the Mailman himself, who embody the individual who have been the model of the modern, worldly society, but in the end succumbed to non- existence as he realized the meaninglessness of his life. Third symbol used in the poem is cancer itself, meant to function as the 'cancer of life,' mirroring people's lives, which remained meaningless and unfulfilled. The speaker also utilized the continuous narrative as a technique to reflect the Mailman's attempt to give meaning to his life, identifying which among his streams of thought could give him an idea or the answer as to whether he lived a meaningful life or had a meaningful existence or not.
The poem also adopts a straightforward tone, illustrating the ordinariness and…. The writer refers to the primary source material liberally and provides in-text citations as well as a bibliography. However, the writer could use active voice more often. For example, the sentence "The use of different point-of-view for the narration of the story has great influence on how the elements of characterization and setting are presented" could be rewritten and presented in active voice: " great influence on how the authors present elements of characterization and setting.
It reads: "The first person narrative can use more direct characterization to establish the people in the story while the objective point-of-view relies on indirect interpretation. I'm alright," he says, but at the end of the story he resumes his drinking again Carver, , p. The significance of physicality in both stories is noteworthy, as it seems to reflect a distrust of language, rather than an embrace of language, as the characters communicate primarily though touching. Carver's prose has often been called minimalistic, a charge that he resisted. Yet Inez and Lloyd do not connect when they go for marital counseling, they do connect, if only briefly, when Inez must clean Lloyd's ears.
The only time Lloyd can really hear is when his wife tries to reach him through physical rather than verbal gestures. The husband of "Cathedral" rages against blindness, but enters the blind man's world through the medium of touch, even after he has tried to exclude the blind man by turning on the TV. hat is particularly important for an…. New York: Vintage, Carver, Raymond. Champion, Laurie. Spring Winter Shannon Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" This is a short story that is told majorly from the eyes of a character referred to here as 'Bub' who is a husband to a woman who had a blind friend, Robert who comes to visit and the visit turns out to be a self search time for Bub and great revelation period for him. The story employs strong use of symbolism as well as motifs to present the themes and the change of state of the mind of Bub as well as the mental disposition of Bub's wife.
There is also exposition of the significance of some styles to the development of themes as well as the flow of the story. It is apparent that even though the Bub lives with the wife, he does not understand her needs and emotional state…. Raymond Carver, "Cathedral" Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral" is narrated in the first person by the unnamed protagonist, and tells a deceptively simple story: the narrator's wife also unnamed has invited her former employer Robert, an older blind man recently widowed, to come for dinner and stay the night. The husband is resistant to the social occasion, but goes through with it -- although his narration makes us privy to his thoughts which are occasionally marked by a low-level hostility or else offers wry and laconic descriptions of his own statements and behavior.
Eventually after consuming several scotches and some "dope you can reason with," the wife falls asleep on the sofa leaving the protagonist in conversation with the blind Robert, eventually leading to the muted but bittersweet conclusion of the story. Yet Carver carefully employs the first-person perspective of the narrator to demonstrate -- almost beyond his own self-awareness…. Cathedral - Raymond Carver About the author An American writer Raymond Carver has been writing stories on a smaller emotional scale for few years that creates same effects. Mostly his story settings contain American towns, semi-industrial, which are mostly depressed. However, his characters, working-class loners fighting for speech, from time to time find work as factory hands and waitresses, while his actions in the stories slip across the troubles of every day life and later on through some strange turn of chance or possibly a gloomy cause that in turns breakdown into unsuccessful marriages as well as shattered lives of all related to it.
Similarly, mostly his stories leave his readers with shake that is similar to the beginning of a collapse Literature: Contemporary. Furthermore, the author of short stories has been typically a writer of strong but at the same time limited effects. He usually shapes and rotates his…. Works Cited Raymond Carver's Double Life. Literature: Contemporary. com Carver, Raymond. Literature: Arts and Medicine. Irving, Howe. Stories of Our Loneliness. The New York Times: Books. September 11, Carver, Raymond. New York. Cathedral, a story by Raymond Carver, there are three main characters: a husband, a wife, and the wife's blind, male friend.
The story is told in the first person, from the point-of-view of the husband, and the mood and tone of the story is austere and tense. At the beginning of the story, the character of the husband is hostile, and angry that the wife's blind friend is coming to visit. The husbands' anger seems out of proportion, and serves as an interesting foil to the wonder and kindness he exhibits at the end of the story. The husband has a strong prejudice against the blind. hen the two men are alone, the blind man touches the hand of the husband. At the touch, the husband changes, and he is able to empathise with the blind man. In short, the character of the husband grows, and becomes kinder and more…. The Cathedral. In: Cathedral: Stories. New York: Knopf, Cathedral Raymond Carver In his short story, Cathedral, author Raymond Carver argues that community and connection are an important component of life.
The narrator begins the story as an isolated man, with few friends and little connection to the outside world. His insularity is upset by the arrival of his wife's friend, a blind man. Initially highly resistant to the blind man's intrusion into his world, the narrator gradually warms to the man through a meal and describing a television program. However, the narrator is not fully moved out of his insulated world until he and the blind man begin to draw a cathedral together. It is this experience that reinforces the importance of connection and community within Carver's Cathedral.
At the beginning of the story, the narrator is clearly isolated from the rest of the world. He sees the world in a defined, stereotypical way, avoids connections with other…. Carver's "Cathedral" An Analysis of Theme and Plot in Carver's "Cathedral" Raymond Carver states that by the mids he had tired of reading and writing "long narrative fiction" "On riting" Shorter fiction, he found, was more immediate. Flannery O'Connor states a similar idea in The Habit of Being: for her, the novel was a literary medium that could bog down all of one's creative powers. Turning to a short story was a way of escape: "My novel is at an impasse.
In fact it has been at one for as long as I can remember. Before Christmas I couldn't stand it any longer so I began a short story. It's like escaping from the penitentiary" O'Connor This mode of thought may help us to understand why Carver turned to composing shorter works of fiction like "Cathedral," a work that acts as a brief glimpse into how one man's…. O'Connor, Flannery. The Habit of Being. NY, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, The story "The Bridle," for instance, tells about what could have turned out to be a family tragedy. However, written by Carver it becomes much stronger and more positive. After going bankrupt in agriculture, a family moves with its few belongings packed into a station wagon to a cheap apartment in a hotel somewhere in the Midwest.
The narrator, who is the unfriendly and uncaring woman who runs the hotel, relates the story of what happens to the mother, Betty, and the horrible temporary jobs she takes to take care of her family. One day at a drunken party at the hotel's pool, her husband, Holits, climbs to the roof of one of the units to jump into the water. Betty cries out, "What are you doing? He looks down at the pool, deciding how much he will have to run to…. References Carver, Raymond. A New Path to the Waterfall. New York: Atlantic Monthly, Call if You Need Me. Kibble, Matthew Ed. Scribner's Writing Series. Writers A to Z. New York: Thompson Gale. As Bub found out, he cannot verbally convey the concept of cathedral to the blind man.
He has to show him; he had no actually get down on his knees and speak the blind man's language. The narrator admits that he had to level with Robert: "my life depended on it. they couldn't see the smoke they exhaled. Instead, all he saw was a stereotypical blind man. For example, Bub expected Robert to be wearing sunglasses and when he wasn't he was shocked. Similarly, the narrator seems to think that the blind man's beard is somehow out of place simply because Robert cannot see. The narrator's prejudices remain solidly in place until the conversation about the cathedral.
Bub is not a…. Nina Baym. For instance, in the wife's poem, "she talked about what she had felt at the time, about what went through her mind when the blind man touched her nose and lips. Finally, the narrator achieves his epiphany via the sense of touch directly at the end of the story when Robert guides his hand towards a new level of insight. The narrator is literally and figuratively touched. Finally, the literary elements converge to create irony. After all, the blind man possesses greater insight into the human condition than a sighted man. The blind man intuitively knows that the television is color instead of black and white -- not because he can see it with his eyes but because of what he senses from being around his hosts.
The narrator's prejudices about the world are formed in…. Work Cited Carver, R. aymond Carver's "Gazebo" to "what we talk about when we talk about love" The entire theme is very much an existentialist one with both stories alluding to the meaninglessness of love, lust, alcoholism, boredom, and, running through it all, the futility of everything. Life equals death -- is perhaps even more than death, for whilst death denotes passivity and absence of negativity, life is full of these destructive elements of infidelity, despair, meaninglessness, and torpor. In aymond Carver's "Gazebo," Duane and Holly, managers of a motel, are two aimless characters that, at one time, had higher dreams for their life. Duane, at least, is a college graduate, and from both Duane and Holly's action and speech, we get a clear impression that both feel cheated by their existence.
They don't seem to do much. They receive free lodging and utilities and a small stipend. And both are hankering for more. Reference Carver, R. What we talk about when we talk about love: stories. Raymond Carver and Themes of Love In the short story "hat e Talk About hen e Talk About Love" Raymond Carver deals with the theme of love. Through the characters and their interactions, Carver shows the emptiness of love and suggests that real love cannot be found. Carver also uses the setting to turn this story of two couples into a story making universal statements about the nature of love.
Terry's characters reveals a lot about the nature of love. Terry describes her former love interest Ed and presents him as an example of real love. She describes how Ed loved her so much that his love overwhelmed him. He was brutal and violent towards her and even tried to kill her. Even though these actions seem to be describing someone who does not really love someone, Terry believes the opposite. She believes that real love is so intense that…. New York: Vintage Books. Delaney, B. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, MagillOnLiterature Plus Maggi, M. Nordgen, J. And it is the tragedy of not knowing that Marin imagines in the story's last paragraph, when she envisions the family he left behind in Mexico as they "wonder, shrug, remember" the pretty boy who vanished and was "never heard from…again.
One is the filtering of the story through Marin's consciousness, so that the subject of the story is not really Geraldo's brief life and death -- it is about what somebody like Marin thinks about when she contemplate somebody like Geraldo. And the second fact is, of course, the emphasis given to the different elements of what Marin considers: in some sense, the sad fact of Geraldo's death is subsidiary to the sad facts of his actual life as an illegal worker in a foreign country, who will die without ever seeing his family again. The fact that…. Works Cited Cisneros, Sandra. Steps to Writing Well. New York: Cengage, Cruz, Felicia J. Harlow, Barbara.
Raleigh-Durham: Duke University Press, The symbolism is clear here, and it is troubling and terrible to the girl. Finally, the girl and the boy have totally different reactions to the man and his situation. The girl feels sorry for him, and realizes she is witnessing something important, although she cannot find the words to express what that is. She dances with him, and feels an emotional connection with him, while the boy just gets drunk. He writes the check to buy the furniture, and has no other emotions about what is happening, it is not real, or it is not important to him. In that reaction, he could be very much like the drunken man as he grows older, and the girl may be witnessing her own future, which is even more frightening to her.
The boy is kind of clueless about the situation, which is why he does not try to communicate about…. The narrator in "Reunion" has an optimistic understanding of life and feels that it would be impossible for him and his father not to have a good time going out. Even with the fact that he is aware of his father's drinking problem, he feels that their relationship is stronger than his father's need for alcohol and that they are probable to overcome their issues as a result of communicating. Alcohol is actually one of the reasons for which Charlie opens his eyes and sees the horrible truth regarding his father. It is then when he realizes that his father cannot get rid of his alcohol problem and that it would be best for him to avoid ever seeing him again.
Charlie virtually experiences rebirth as he sees his father drinking heavily and behaving aggressively. He realizes that this is who his father is and that this person is never…. Works cited: Carver, Raymond, "The Cathedral" Cheever, John, "Reunion" Winter, Michael, "Archibald the Arctic". career - how do his late stories differ from his early stories? AYMOND CAVE'S WOK aymond Carver wrote from the time he was a young man until his death at 50 in He wrote of his own experiences as an alcoholic, young father, and blue-collar worker. His writing was always classified as postmodern, however, as with most authors, his writing changed from his early work to his later works. One of the contrasts between Carver's earlier works and his later works is in the minute detail of eating.
In "The Idea," Carver's characters use eating as a substitute for communication, especially with those who they should be the most intimate. In "Cathedral" the baker tells the couple whose son…. References Brown, Arthur A. Liukkonen, Petri. Love is a word that is often overused and sometimes underappreciated. And despite the confusion some people have in separating romantic love from sensual pleasure, or real love from friendship -- love is among the most powerful ideas in the world. Given all the tension and hatefulness in the world, it is the opinion of this paper that any love is good love, no matter how bizarre or byzantine it may appear to society. The widely diverse and dissimilar kinds of love that writer Raymond Carver alludes to in his short story simply reflect the vast chasm between one personality and the next.
It may seem blatantly obvious to say this, but individual approaches to love -- and reflections on love -- are of course based on each person's life experiences. Bob Dylan wrote a song -- "Love is Just a Four-Letter ord" -- that has an ironic twist to…. O'Connor It is through a horrible act of violence that the grandmother and we understand that things do not always work out as we plan and some stories do not have a happy ending. In "Cathedral," Carver utilizes a less dramatic setting to convey a message to us. In this story, the narrator is uneasy about Robert's visit and does not know how to behave when they first meet. It is only through a conversation about cathedrals that allows the narrator to discover something about Robert and himself. The setting is significant because this is the place where the narrator and Robert meet and where the narrator has his epiphany.
The mood of the home changes from negative to positive. Sight becomes significant in the story as well because that is what the entire story revolves around and that is what ultimately brings the two men closer. Because the…. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, eds. New York: Longman. Therefore, Johnson weaves clever and poignant paradoxes in the language as well as the overarching themes. The one-eyed man could have died or lost his good eye, as the Nurse points out. He survives unscathed, and sees what his wife forbade him to see. Likewise, Hardie could have faced immanent death in the war but he survives by going AOL.
In both cases, subverting social convention is a key to liberation. The paradox of religion is also conveyed via deft use of language. In "Cathedral," the title image represents the symbol of religious strivings. A cathedral is a house of God; but that house does not necessarily lead to spiritual awakening. On the contrary, the house in which the story takes place does become a zone of spiritual awakening. The blind man and the narrator use the ancient sacrament of cannabis to explore the real meaning of human existence, which…. htm Johnson, Denis. The choice cannot be repudiated or duplicated, but one makes the choice without foreknowledge, almost as if blindly.
And at the end, as one continues to encounter different forks along the way, the endless paths have slim chance of ever giving the traveler a second choice. One can see this as similar to Mrs. Mallard's change. As she looks out into the future, she sees endless possibilities for choice and nothing feels like she would ever return to the determinate state of marriage. Unlike in Chopin, the traveler determines to take the path. In Chopin, the path forces…. Bibliography Carver, Raymond. Cathedral: stories. New York: Vintage. Chopin, Kate. The Awakening and selected short fiction. Frost, Robert. The Poetry of Robert Frost: the collected poems E. Lathem, Ed. New York: Holt. However, the narrator eventually comes to acknowledge his ignorance after the blind man presents him with matters as seen from his point-of-view.
John applies perfectly in this situation, considering that it promotes the concept that individuals are probable to express more appreciation toward the world as a whole and toward things that previously seemed uninteresting. James also applies in this situation because it emphasizes that jealousy and selfish ambition are probable to disrupt the peace within a family. The narrator has trouble enjoying life to the fullest because he is jealous and envious with regard to his wife's friends. Adams as the first persons who draws a ticket during the lottery and it would be absurd for someone to consider that this does not stand as a reference to Adam as the first man that God created. The fact that Tessie Hutchinson refrains from…. Works cited: Carver, Raymond, "Cathedral," Random House, So, in some case, leadership does not necessarily link with responsibility for the men, but rather with the relationship with the persons who are led.
Napoleon was able to concentrate the energies of his men in a way that served his best interests. This links with Raymond Carver's story, in the sense that good leadership is also about good communication, about the ability of passing the appropriate message. The main theme of his story is that of communication or lack of , namely of finding the right words to pass on to the others. The right words are fundamental, because they help connect individuals and fostering this relationship is perhaps the most important part of good leadership. The most important point in "Cathedral," from a leadership perspective, is when the husband finds himself at a loss of words when trying to describe the cathedral to Robert.
He is, throughout the story…. Bibliography 1. O'Brien, Tim The Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2. Carver, Raymond Cathedral New York: Knopf 3. Chemers M. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. Individual Knowledge and Power 19th century poet Emily Dickinson is famous for her writing about the sometimes odd quality of being human, or rather the unnatural social norms that humanity has constructed. Despite the best efforts of the philosophers and statesmen who have fostered Western principles of common sense throughout the centuries, people are not mathematical certainties; and while general rules are essential to the well-being of the population, individual lives cannot be dictated by a standardized social formula.
True human growth and progress is a journey often taken alone, in which a person has to develop his or her own ideas of right and wrong. This short essay examines three different ways individual knowledge and power is originated, fostered, and…. Every leader uses his or her own approach to leading, and while there are similar aspects to the behaviors of most leaders, how leaders approach their strengths is played out differently. In literature like the blind man in Cathedral and in real life like the way Abraham Lincoln conducted himself in a political situation leaders provide robust examples of how to get things done and how to influence the actions of others. This paper uses the leadership styles and behaviors of several individuals to demonstrate their qualities or, in the case of Jimmy Cross, lack of leadership qualities as they lead -- and the paper points to the integrity the individuals showed in the process of their leadership.
Leadership and Integrity Abraham Lincoln -- the subject today…. Works Cited Abrashoff, Michael D. It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy. New York: Warner Books. Cathedral: Raymond Carver, in The Wadsworth Casebook Series for Reading, Research, and Writing, Ed. Laurie Kirszner. Independence, KY: Cengage Learning. Moreton, Catherine L. OK stories and poems. Essays offering a cliched modernist view of the writer. Some stories are recycled. flag 3 likes · Like · see review. Apr 25, Jennifer rated it really liked it. Fires is a mix of Carver's essays, poems and early versions of short stories, some published in "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," pieces that aren't really tied together but don't really fit with his other work.
It's a great read and offers some real insight on Carver and his writing. I especially liked the essays, which are all about writing and his influences, and offer some great advice for other writers and even inspiration, given that Carver was struggling to be a writer while w Fires is a mix of Carver's essays, poems and early versions of short stories, some published in "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," pieces that aren't really tied together but don't really fit with his other work. I especially liked the essays, which are all about writing and his influences, and offer some great advice for other writers and even inspiration, given that Carver was struggling to be a writer while working odd jobs and raising two kids with his wife.
They're written in that realist, this-is-the-way-it-is, Carver style. Why did he choose short stories? He didn't have time or the focus for a novel. They kind of remind me of Stephen King's "On Writing," and I'll have to look back to see if King refers to Carver in his influences. Both books have that intimate feel of the storyteller sitting behind the desk telling you anything you want to know about themselves. I only wish Carver had written even more. There's this line in the essay "Fires," in which he writes about his influences, he tells a story of being at the laundromat one day and having one of those moments where you see all too clearly just who you are: "But I remember thinking at that moment, amid the feelings of helpless frustration that had me close to tears, that nothing - and, brother, I mean nothing - that ever happened to me on this earth could come anywhere close, could possibly be as important to me, could make as much difference, as the fact that I had two children.
In "On Writing," Carver gives us his philosophy of what makes for good writing: don't play tricks on the reader, do your best and take the time to choose the right word. The last piece seems particularly relevant these days when we have more places to express ourselves than ever before - texts, tweets, facebook updates, goodreads reviews, etc. Words to live by. View all 8 comments. Jan 16, Caspar Bryant rated it liked it · review of another edition. This is my introduction to Carver, so I don't wish to make oeuvristic generalisations, but I think it serves that purpose wonderfully. Fires includes essays, a small collection of short stories, and fifty poems.
By far, I think the essays are the highlight to this book - particularly Carver's reflections on writing. The essay concerning his father is also worth a look. The poems are more variable. Some are tedious, but I do enjoy the more self-consciously literary attempts, particularly those th This is my introduction to Carver, so I don't wish to make oeuvristic generalisations, but I think it serves that purpose wonderfully. Some are tedious, but I do enjoy the more self-consciously literary attempts, particularly those that refer to other authors. With the major exception of the Bukowski poem, which was a real lowlight of this book. Despite Carver's evasive remarks upon literary influence, the short stories are incredibly Faulknerian, only situated in a slightly later America.
Reminded me of the wonderful Wim Wenders film Paris, Texas flag 2 likes · Like · see review. Dec 09, Fee Anyau rated it really liked it · review of another edition. This is the best collection if you want to get to know Carver. It starts with an essay on his father and then his mentor. In a shallow way to describe it, even his poems sound like his short stories. Having read three of his collections this year alone, and one last This is the best collection if you want to get to know Carver. Am I a fan? Will my future writing get influenced by his style?
Jul 04, Brennan Humphreys rated it it was amazing · review of another edition. Man, a beauty of a book for Carver lovers Carlovers? A mix of nonfiction essays, poems, short stories, a substantial interview, and an afterword from Ray himself. He was a commonplace man with a patient eye for poignancy, poetry, and reality. Jan 02, Realini rated it it was amazing · review of another edition Shelves: delightful , favorites , masterpiece , pulitzer. After the essay On Writing, Raymond Carver explains more about his art, the suffering involved in it in: - Fires The reader learns about the greatest influence on the author, the hardships endured and some of his convictions. His children had the greatest influence on Raymond Carver. The reader is affected by the suffering, the poverty that the writer and his family had to endure; they had difficulty to put bread on the table.
The writer states that he took almost any job he could find, from janitor to picking up daisies during day time. He did not find enough time to work and tried to get one hour during work days and if that was not possible to try and work on weekends. He even considered bond or debt collection at one time- I forgot which was mentioned in an ad…however, the author did not take it. His wife was a waitress for many years and she later became a school teacher, but for a long time they had problems in finding a position suitable for their skills. Raymond Carver mentions Henry Miller, who was supposed to have said about his writing, while engaged with The Tropic of Cancer, a book that the author of Fires loves but I could not read, except for the first chapter or so… - Henry Miller was worried that someone may come and take the chair from under him, while he was writing - Raymond Carver appears to have been in much the same situation There is an incident in a Laundromat.
Raymond Carver has been waiting for about thirty minutes, trying to get his clothes into a drier, but without success. He is already tense and looking for an opening, a machine that has finished its cycle and perhaps he could be in first. Now I am thinking of positive psychology and research that demonstrates that parents are happier when…their children move away from home… As a parent of a teenager, I think that I understand the feeling and imagine when I will not have to confront and respond to a daughter that sees almost anything I do with a condemning remark or correction.
The problems that Raymond Carver had to face were not just financial, or the pressing lack of time to write. Jan 17, Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition Shelves: poetry , short-stories , essays , fiction. Another excellent collection from Raymond Carver, this one a selection of 4 essays, 50 poems and 7 short stories. I did not read this book in the "correct" order, reading the poems first, then the short stories, finishing with the essays, but I think it would be best to begin with the essays as it is here that Carver talks about his children, his father, his writing and his influences, giving a little context to the content of some of his poems and short stories.
I particularly liked the section Another excellent collection from Raymond Carver, this one a selection of 4 essays, 50 poems and 7 short stories. I particularly liked the section where he talks about being in a laundromat in Iowa City in the 60s, him and his wife struggling to make ends meet, and it dawns on him that nothing could be as important or make as much difference in his life as the fact that he was a father of two children. The poems were good too, but as someone who is not all that into poetry they were not the strongest part of the collection for me. The themes here are comparable to those of Carver's fiction - marital issues, alcoholism, hunting and solitude or lack of it. I'd read somewhere that a couple of these short stories had been published in other collections before, that these were early drafts of those stories, but I only recognised the final one, "So much water so close to home".
The other stories that stood out to me were "The pheasant", "The lie" and "The cabin", all brilliant examples of how Carver was an unparalleled master of the short story. Fires might be a good introduction to Carver - you get to sample all types of his writing - but I think overall the stories in Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? remain the best. Still a great collection and well worth checking out! View 2 comments. Jul 13, Daniel rated it it was amazing Recommended to Daniel by: Jennifer netherby. Shelves: books-about-writing , books-about-writers , My friend Jennifer thanks for lending it to me, Jennifer!
so I won't write a long review here. I do, however, want to call attention to "You Don't Know What Love Is an evening with Charles Bukowski ," which, I'm assuming, is pretty much a transcript of "Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories" is nearly flawless, and highly recommended to anyone either coming to Raymond Carver for the first time or already a fan of his work. I do, however, want to call attention to "You Don't Know What Love Is an evening with Charles Bukowski ," which, I'm assuming, is pretty much a transcript of just that, in the form of a five-page poem. Though fans of either Carver or Bukowski won't need it, here's a brief excerpt to whet the appetite: Bukowski this is the life I say it's good to be poor it's good to have hemorrhoids it's good to be in love But you don't know what it's like You don't know what it's like to be in love If you could see her you'd know what I mean The poems, the essays especially the one about Carver's father , and the stories -- the stories, my God, the stories -- in "Fires" are all simply brilliant.
Less reading this review, more reading the book. View all 15 comments. Jul 09, Vishal rated it really liked it. Out of all the wonderful pieces of work in this collection of essays, shorts and poems, The Cabin is perhaps THE example of quintessential Carver. Astonishingly vivid just a few words in, Carver chooses his words sparingly and lovingly like a painter selects his blends of colours and shades. Not much happens, yet everything is felt. Fires also satisfied my curiosity to read his poetry, a mix of touching, abstract, ominous and-in the case of You Don't Know What Love is, an account of an evening s Out of all the wonderful pieces of work in this collection of essays, shorts and poems, The Cabin is perhaps THE example of quintessential Carver.
Fires also satisfied my curiosity to read his poetry, a mix of touching, abstract, ominous and-in the case of You Don't Know What Love is, an account of an evening spent with a fellow master of words Bukowski-razor-sharp funny as well. His poems and his words opens worlds within one, inspire one to write, and beat with a pulsing of life as if to say: 'This could be your life, too'. Jun 25, Liina Bachmann rated it really liked it · review of another edition Shelves: Writers don't need trick or gimmicks or even necessarily need to be the smartest fellows on the block. At the risk of appearing foolish, a writer sometimes needs to be able to just stand and gape at this or that thing - a sunset or an old shoe - in absolute and simple amazement Fires is a collection of 4 essays, about 50 poems and 7 short stories.
The essays and stories are very very good, the poems some good some paled in comparison to th 4 stars only cos the pomes weren't as strong as the rest. The essays and stories are very very good, the poems some good some paled in comparison to the prose. Three of those essays are about writing and the influences Carver had on his work - his teacher John Gardner and his own children. I think it is essential reading for anyone who wants to write, writes or wants to understand his work or any literary fiction better. It also sheds light to his own famously sparse style. And exactly as I suspected - revision is an essential part of it. Carver didn't make it big not before years of writing and he is the prime example of how talent alone does nothing at all, his style was crafted consciously.
There is also a very moving essay about his father. Like the characters in his own stories, his father was a simple working-class man. With that essay, I understood why some of his stories seem so tender to me. It is the intimate daily routines of men and women opposed to the harsh realities of getting by and making ends meet. Having a whiskey, smoking in bed, watching a TV set on a sunny day with the curtains drawn, wanting to have sex but being too lazy or tired for it but not minding either cos there is a warm familiarity that permits the lack of it. The home becomes this warm sanctuary where the characters hide from the world. The stories in this collection were a bit more nervous and had more sinister undercurrents than the rest that I have read so far. I don't think this can be done any better.
Maybe Shirley Jackson excels in it at the relatively same level. That the reader can feel the unsaid even more strongly than what is apparent. So Much Water So Close to Home was unforgettable in that regard but all the stories were brilliant. I think having books like this makes it quite difficult to explore new authors with gusto because often even rereading Carver or any other writer at the same level by far surpasses reading anything contemporary. flag 1 like · Like · see review. Apr 27, Peyton Van amburgh rated it really liked it. the essays are ok, mostly insights into Carver's process, which is obviously pretty specific and uncomplicated. The poetry I really liked. The stories are pretty interesting.
Carver clearly felt wronged by the edits made in the original publication of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, as 3 of those stories appear here in a different format. The version here of "So Much Water So Close to Home" is the best story he ever wrote. I also really loved "Where is Everyone? For fans only, this collection is just for those who might want more personal insight into Carver. Oct 31, Vicky rated it liked it · review of another edition Shelves: classics-i-have-read. I don't know how they do. But they do without you realizing it or wanting them to". I really enjoyed this book, specially the four essays and the short stories.
Also, i think i have found one of my favourites short stories by Carver called Distance and that was super cool. However, i'm not a big fan of poetry and though i liked his stuff i don't think any of it was super memorable. Still i do think it is a pretty good book and also a good place to start with Carver becaus "Things change, he says. Still i do think it is a pretty good book and also a good place to start with Carver because you have a little bit of everything essays, stories and poems and it can give a better sense of who he was as a writer and his writting style.
Jan 04, Sydney Wilson rated it really liked it · review of another edition. Raymond Carver was definitely inspired by Earnest Hemingway and it shows. He writes female stories really well! Aug 30, dead letter office rated it liked it. I didn't like this as much as I liked Cathedral. To be fair, I've never liked any collection of short fiction as much as I liked Cathedral. My favorites in this were some of the poems. The essays and the stories and some of the poems seemed infected by alcoholism, and by a probably related viciousness that for me obscured the originality of the writing.
One takeaway: Raymond Carver doesn't seem to like children, and harbors a particular resentment toward his own. Jan 05, Ramzzi Fariñas rated it it was ok Shelves: poetry. Although relatable, domestic, and truly sincere to be simple and precise in showing the edges of a house and the characters who live in such domain, I am not near convinced Raymond Carver's content—whether in style or the themes he wants to point out. His voice feels like a second rate-Hemingway, and to be earnest, Ernest is better. Raymond's works are manly, true enough, but, he has been so limited in being lyrical—his minimalist prose doesn't convey literary merit like Hemingway had done.
No jo Although relatable, domestic, and truly sincere to be simple and precise in showing the edges of a house and the characters who live in such domain, I am not near convinced Raymond Carver's content—whether in style or the themes he wants to point out. No journalistic excursions, nor a higher human evaluation present, no art along the words, except the exact experiences of the American life—told in a dull way. And his collection is more absurd with his poems. I can't see, hear, neither at least feel the music and the sorrowful sojourn of a poet here.
It is like he insisted his poems are poems, but to be honest, this is what Jose Garcia Villa lectured to his students back then in New York: "chopped up prose. How come he is revered as one of America's greatest writers? If anyone below the Hemingway-esque writing is not considered literary, why then Carver is near the Lost Generation's Nobel Laureate? True literature perhaps, indeed has been in decline when American literature was celebrated with the likes of Carver. Dec 04, Alex rated it really liked it. According to the Afterword, Carver revised "So Much Water So Close to Home," and although I didn't know that while reading the version of the story in this book, I found myself much more engaged in and disturbed by the story this time around.
In Carver's interview with the Paris Review included at the end of the book , he gives some thoughts on the purpose of fiction: "It doesn't have to do anything. It just has to be there for the fierce pleasure we take in doing it, and the different kind of According to the Afterword, Carver revised "So Much Water So Close to Home," and although I didn't know that while reading the version of the story in this book, I found myself much more engaged in and disturbed by the story this time around. It just has to be there for the fierce pleasure we take in doing it, and the different kind of pleasure that's taken in reading something that's durable and made to last, as well as beautiful in and of itself.
Something that throws off these sparks--a persistent and steady glow, however dim. Feb 10, Lisa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition. I am giving this book five stars because I love Raymond Carver, but I am disappointed in my particular copy. I got it at a used book store and it looked fine on the outside, but it must've been a misprint. In one of the stories a page was missing, and then later in the book, it repeated a huge chunk of pages, so I ended up missing four stories entirely. How does that even happen? Jan 08, Sheri Hopsy rated it really liked it. May 18, B. Rule rated it liked it · review of another edition. There's no denying Carver is a talented writer, and it's easy to see what Lish saw in him: he's imbibed Lishian economy of expression with his mother's milk.
Every sentence lands with a solidity of inevitability, as though it had to contain the words comprising it and none other. It's a style to be admired for its sense of control. But not, necessarily, for its beauty. There are some beautiful lines in here, of course, but mostly we're to marvel at the cold precision rather than celebrate unusua There's no denying Carver is a talented writer, and it's easy to see what Lish saw in him: he's imbibed Lishian economy of expression with his mother's milk. There are some beautiful lines in here, of course, but mostly we're to marvel at the cold precision rather than celebrate unusual word pairings or poetic fire.
The essays here are mostly writing advice and reminiscences. I enjoyed getting a glimpse of a younger Carver and his wonder at the improbability of his own success as a writer. His tribute to his teacher John Gardner is affecting and appreciative, but also quite cutting. The title piece is the best of the essays, as Carver deals bluntly with the effect of parenthood on every aspect of life's work. I particularly appreciated his acknowledgement that his children are the gravitational object around which all of his work revolves, far eclipsing lesser influences like books he's read or teachers he's had.
I think every parent can understand the complicated, inexorable, and all-encompassing way that your children leave nothing unchanged in your life. Most of the poems in here are middling, although I was howling over his takedown of Bukowski and his pompous, drunken hotel-room declamations. The most prominent themes are fishing, drinking, and poetry itself. The stories here feel more like drafts or lesser efforts. None of them land quite as hard as the best of his other collections, but a few are still pretty good. Most of them process similar scenes: working folks struggling with alcohol, their own loneliness, and their partners. The last story, on the effect on a marriage of the husband finding a dead body on a fishing trip, is probably the most effective working-out of the theme.
I also liked "The Pheasant", about the effect on a relationship of the man hitting a pheasant while driving. Carver really loves showing how a subtle, seemingly minor event can shift perspectives so fundamentally that everything must change. The worst story here is probably "The Lie". Carver rails in the essays against writing by "trick", but I considered this story to be a prime example of that sin. This is a decent collection for those already initiated in the mysteries of Carver, but I would start elsewhere as a new postulant. flag Like · see review. Jul 22, Laszlo Szerdahelyi rated it it was amazing. I guess at this point, there's nothing about Carver that can be said that hasn't been said already. Seamless minimalist prose that breaks through the layer of emotion lying just under the skin and goes straight to the heart, one short sharp shock.
That's Carver in a nutshell, his prose and his poetry. But, as with most things you always learn more and 4 essays, 7 short stories and 52 poems later there's always more to learn, more depth, more understanding of his character as a writer and his abil I guess at this point, there's nothing about Carver that can be said that hasn't been said already. But, as with most things you always learn more and 4 essays, 7 short stories and 52 poems later there's always more to learn, more depth, more understanding of his character as a writer and his ability to put himself in the shoes of his characters. The essays offered a nice biographical insight into his background, his relationship with writing, to his family, his kids especially and his father as well his writing mentor John Gardner.
The poems, especially the ones collected in the first part and his evening with Bukowski are worth rereading again and again, sublimely beautiful and at time painful at the same time. His stories offer what, for those acquainted with Carver's works already know is the usual Carver magic, some Hemingway meets Joyce, Bukowski drops by and Faulkner waves from a nearby window and it all ends halfway, frozen somehow, whisky in glasses on the table, cigarettes smoldering in perpetuity. The collection is a good starter as well, nice dip into the mind that bring forth his creations, his poetry and his prose, all of which come together for a veritable display of power and literary prowess that only Carver can bring.
Apr 04, Matt rated it liked it. I found the essays in Fires inspiring and brilliantly written. I found a handful of the poems readable and the stories; as a collection of stories I found them mismatched. Essays: I enjoyed On Writing and Fires the most. On Writing inspired me and filled me with hope. I found it poignantly authentic, like most of his other work. I found it a I found the essays in Fires inspiring and brilliantly written. I found it an intriguing look into Carvers private life. Poems: I loved At Night The Salmon Move, Trying To Sleep Late On A Saturday Morning In November.
At Night The Salmon Move sent me into a mental state of welcome torpidity. The last line of the poem made me feel hungover. Trying To Sleep Late On A Saturday Morning In November brought a tear to my eye. The idea of finding salvation by force came to my mind. Stories: The Cabin captivated me the most. The setting felt comfortable and the plot felt authentic. It left me with a feeling of desperately wanting to go home.
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