Author Archives: ec118254

At this point, I’m still relatively lost about what I want to do for the final paper. I’ve been looking through a lot of poems, but none of them seem to strike me as anything I’d want to devote an entire paper to interpreting. It’s likely that I’ll end up doing something with a theme of childhood, or growing up and becoming an adult, because I found a lot of the poems categorized under that theme to be particularly interesting.

The one thing that I’m completely set on though, is the idea of doing a stop-motion animation video for the digital essay portion. It might be a bit ambitious given the amount of time we have to do this project, but since I’ve already done a film project before for another class, I wanted to try something different this time around.

Creative urges seems to come to me only when I least need or want them, like when I am doing some much-needed cramming the night before a midterm or pushing myself to finish my homework in a timely manner. That probably says a lot more about me than about creativity, but I just felt like putting that out there.

Ken Robinson’s short little speech brings up the idea that schools actively stifle the creativity of children. Through standardized testing and classroom interactions, students are heavily influenced to believe that being wrong is a bad thing. That kind of mindset leaves them afraid of trying new things and making mistakes for fear of judgment from their peers, which consequently discourages out of the box thinking. The key to being safe is to conform. We are indeed a society more dominated by workers than thinkers, because that is what our education system has specifically trained us to become.

This flaw in our education might be the reason as to why so many people–regretfully, often including myself–seem to dread being assigned ‘vague’ essay topics. More specific prompts means less of a need for us to think for ourselves. They are considered the safer route because the major decisions have already been made for us, and there is less pressure about being judged as ‘wrong’ or ‘right’ based on the content of the work we hand in. The more creative freedom we are given in assignments, the harder they seem to become. I’m sure that it’s a relatable struggle for many people, since we’ve probably all been taught that it’s best to color inside the lines.

Cathedral presents the story of a blind man’s visit through the eyes of a wary narrator, one who makes it quite clear that the presence of a stranger–and a blind one at that–is not something he welcomes into his home with open arms. The tension is palpable even before Robert steps through the doorway, and it stems not only from the narrator’s preconceived notions of how the blind should be, but also his own insecurities and lack of confidence.

The narrator makes it a point to never refer to his wife’s last husband by name, calling him instead “the childhood sweetheart” and acting as if even the mention of his real name would be a threat to his marriage. It’s very obvious that he views Robert in a similar light, as he makes it a point to bring up several instances where the blind man and his wife’s relationship could have possibly bordered romantic, and comments negatively on many aspects of the other man’s appearance and actions.

Raymond Carver makes a good point of following his own advice, as even just the opening section of Cathedral is enough to illustrate the underlying sensations of restlessness present in the narrator’s mind. The transition from these hostile feelings that the narrator experiences to a more willing acceptance comes gradually, as he struggles to find common ground with a stranger whom he initially believes is too different to get along with. Unlike the theme of our English class, what the narrator experiences isn’t happiness. But it’s definitely a start in the right direction.

I’ve read Hemingway before, so I was fairly confident that I wouldn’t have too much trouble trying to interpret this three-page short story. Yes, his work was confusing, but how much could he do in three pages?

A lot, apparently.

And at the same time, it feels as if Hemingway’s written about nothing at all. The dialogue repeats itself tirelessly over and over again like a broken record until it feels like I’m even starting to think in cheerless, oversimplified sentences. After reading through the story the first time around, I attempted to grasp at the plot. But all I found were words—scattered bits and pieces of the dialogue that had become so ingrained in my memory through the process of repetition that they refused to let go. Among them were:

–          “we can”

–          “we can’t”

–          “perfectly simple”

–          “beer”

–          “I feel fine”

–          “happy”

The American man and the girl are always hinting at something larger through their seemingly mundane conversation, and it gives the reader the sense that there’s a lot more going on behind the talk of white elephants, alcohol and happiness than the simplicity of his work initially leads us to believe. It becomes quite evident that the girl is not fine, and that the two of them are not nearly as happy as they pretend to be. The repetitive wording cloaks the true subject matter of the story, which is only ever implied at best. The two characters skirt around the topic, occasionally touching upon it, but not nearly long enough for us to really comprehend it without an extensive close reading of the material.

And that’s where the title comes into play. Upon finishing the story and looking it over once again, it occurred to me that the story itself was very much like the saying “an elephant in the room.” The idiom is used to describe something very apparent or obvious, but at the same time, goes unaddressed, which is exactly what the American and the girl are doing here. The characters are unwilling to get to the heart of the issue, and thus they continue to keep their conversations pleasantly shallow for fear of disrupting their “happiness.”