The stories of the American writer Raymond Carver at first glance seem dedicated to purely everyday topics, but in reality they reveal serious social problems. Something like this is written everywhere on the net. Firstly, I did not believe this fact (simple story, few characters, everything is clear, no metaphors and personification, etc.). But behind this truly insignificant basis lies a huge number of questions and issues: the topic of light and darkness, pure love and relationships between people, sight and blindness, faith and its projection in life real. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Raymond Carver's style is minimalism. It uses simple language, ordinary situations and characters that describe their real and empty lives. Nothing special. Carver does not describe the characters in the story and does not even mention where the story takes place. In fact, we don't even know the name of the narrator who is one of the main characters. The purpose of this writing style is to give readers a chance to guess what the characters might be feeling and having, developing understanding of emotions and impressions. of the characters through short exclamations and phrases. Raymond Carver's style is dirty realism (Whiting style in America of the 70s and 80s of the 20th century). Carver demands such sparing of words that every description be subjected to the bare minimum. The rest is given to the dialogues of outstanding, uncomplicated and insignificant characters. As a representative of dirty realism, he focused on middle-class characters and depicts the harsh reality of their ordinary lives filled with sad memories and problems such as drug and alcohol abuse, divorce, and the death of loved ones. And with such minimalism, Carver's story (several pages in size) contains serious drama, or even tragedy, of its "exceptional" characters. Simple story. Simple people. Simple language. These are the rules for Carver's short story “Cathedral.” It lacks extensive descriptions, beautiful adjectives and adverbs, extended metaphors and monologues that give some nuances of meaning. On the contrary, it admits that facts, actions and events dictate the crux of the proceedings. For example, the beginning of the stories is too simple: "This blind man, an old friend of my wife, was going to spend the night." Carver focuses on simple events, on the routine of everyday life. The story is written in the first type of narration. The narrator, whose name we don't actually know, drinks too much and has misunderstandings with his wife. Paradoxically he tells us the story but during the conversation between the blind man, the narrator and his wife the latter takes the passive position (she said a few words to demonstrate that she was present in the room). He can't seem to understand not only his wife but also himself until Robert opens his eyes to his real problems to show how he can live in a kind of communion with the world and what connections he might have with it. the story? At first glance there is some. The couple has so many misunderstandings and reluctance to listen to each other that it seems like they live in different worlds. The wife wants to talk, she needs this communication. I think that's why he records letters to the blind man and tries to compose poetry. Her husband doesn't realize the importance of supporting her. Listen to his poems but without any pleasure or even emotion. In contrast, here is another couple in the story: Robert and his wife. We don't know much about their relationships but this brief description of Robert's wife's death says a lot. Until his death Robert does not leave his beloved and keeps half of hercoin (he put the other half in the hearse) which reminds him of his love. I imagine an ordinary person living with primitive instincts, limited in his mind. His life is like a sticky liquid that is sucked away, day by day. One day, in such a stable world, someone invades it who doesn't adapt to it at all. From the beginning we know about the blind man. We easily recognize that the narrator does not like the blind and the blind in general. Blind. Sight is the most important organ of perception and "such" existence in the darkness terrifies the protagonist. There is disgust, misunderstanding, but only until the moment this someone opens up another world for him, a world without borders and frames, where the main thing is what the soul feels, and not the body. How can a blind man explain to a blind man what he looks like and who he has never seen in his life? That's why Robert asks to draw a cathedral, with buttressed arches, but the narrator shows him only the walls and the cold stone. Then he asks to close your eyes and allow the blind to draw people with their hand into the cathedral, to put their soul in the line of walls and stone. It shows a world that can only be seen by those who close their eyes. The spiritual world and is much more beautiful than the visual one. To believe and feel, eyes are not necessary at all. The theme of light and darkness is also the interpretation of the theme of sight and blindness. This is demonstrated by the character of Robert, who is literally blind. Literally! But he is not considered one who lives in darkness but, paradoxically, in light. However, we might understand that the narrator, who can actually see, is metaphorically "blind" in various ways. In fact, Robert teaches her husband to close his eyes, hear and see with his senses and draw. At the end of the story they both draw a cathedral with their eyes closed resting on the floor. There is a hope to increase the light in the narrator's soul through the cathedral as a symbol of light. This is demonstrated by his selfishness and also by his inability to see how his actions are affecting his relationship with his wife, who is increasingly annoyed by his insensitivity. and rudeness. Another paradoxical thing is that Robert has two TVs (one color and one black and white) and can understand which TV he is watching (or listening to). This is another proof that Robert is not blind and helpless. Try to obtain new information through other perceptions of the body. A cathedral is a symbol of faith, religion, and the process of drawing it becomes the culmination of the story. The sighted hero is trying to explain to the blind man what a cathedral is. He talks about stones, architectural details, dimensions. But for a blind person these are not characterizing signs, for him the idea of ​​objects is built on the basis of other categories: a cathedral has been built for centuries, people begin to build it, knowing that only their grandchildren or even great-grandchildren can see the result. “Do you believe in God?” he asks the man, when he finds it difficult to choose words understandable to the blind to describe another architectural detail. While describing the cathedral, the husband thinks of the house: “I drew a box that looked like my house.” Here is a very strong image of the transformation of the house into a cathedral, because the cathedral is made, it is built for people. For this reason the blind man asks to bring people closer to the building. The essence becomes visible through the form, the seer closes his eyes and feels the walls disappear, because the Cathedral is something that cannot be perceived with the eyes, but only with sight. something else, free from the constraints of a given form. Conclusion In summary, it must be said that it is impossible to ignore Carver's immense talent. A short story about the first encounter with a blind man. It was written professionally, but not dryly: it is.