Equality: Awakening the American Sensitivity - Research Paper Example

Equality: Awakening the American sensitivity Raymond Carver’s short stories, “Cathedral” and “Little Things” address the American insensitivity to equality for all, particularly in matters relating to gender and disability during the ‘Lost Generation and After’ literature period . Through focusing on Raymond Carver’s work in this period, the discussion seeks to analyze the highly vocal art and literature in the 1980s that sought to provoke societal transformations in the social, sexual and artistic conventions, with the aim of establishing new societal values. The relevance of the two short stories emanates from the different perspectives they took in calling for sensitivity to social and gender equality, where the female gender and the disabled would be accorded equal status with the males. Raymond Carver was an influential American writer, producing several collections of short stories, most of which focused on social values of gender equality and recognition of equal rights for all. The analysis seek to apply literature search (balanced books, journal articles) and Internet research on Carver’s biographical information, and the literature of social rebellion of the ‘Lost Generation and After’ literature period. In the story: cathedral, Raymond Carver talks about a blind man who is a friend to his wife who visits them. The narrator is at first negative about the blind man’s visit but eventually gives into the idea just to please his wife. The story shows the many ways that people with disabilities can be treated in equally by people in their environments in the United States of America. All of these are particularly seen in the attitude that the narrator have toward the blind man. The story shows that people still have negative opinions towards the worth of disabled people in the United States of America. The first time that unequal treatment of disable people prevails in this story is the moment when the narrator and his wife start discussing about the Robert’s marriage. In the story, it shows that late Robert’s wife was a reader for the blinds and her profession had led to their meeting. In fact the narrator’s wife was the one offering these services to Robert before the lady who he finally got married to come through. However what is alarming about this part is the response that the narrator has when his wife tells him about the blind man’s wife. The narrator seeks to find out if Robert’s wife as an African American. As much as this statement can be viewed as discriminating on racial basis, in this text it can be seen as a way of showing that the narrator was a person who believed that disabled people would only be intimately attractive to individuals from certain races. This is something that is not entirely just creativity because it is something that commonly happens in the United States of America. While the narrator and his wife are still talking about Robert’s late wife, the writer makes another statement that shows his disregard to people with disabilities. The writer imagines that just because Robert is blind then the late wife must have had a really pitiful life. In his thought he could not help but ask himself questions on what Robert’s late wife must have felt about Robert not being able to see her. The story states that the narrator said that, “And then I found myself thinking what a pitiful life this woman must have led.” (Carver 119). This is shows a very high level of discrimination toward disabled people because instead of the narrator having pity on the blind man for having not been able to see his wife, he sees that the wife deserves the pity for being married to a person who was never able to see her. Through this statement the narrator illuminates on the common perception that people with disabilities are social liabilities. This is a sentiment that is shared by a very big number of people in the United States of America. People still have the belief that any association with disabled people will burden those who are not disabled while benefiting those that are disabled. When the narrator’s wife falls asleep, he starts having a conversation with Robert. They eventually switch their concentration to a television program after Roberts letting the narrator know that he enjoys learning new things. He follows the content of the TV program by listening to what the TV narrator says about the content of the program. When the TV narrator does not give any narration on some parts, the narrator would do it himself. It is at this point that a form of inequality prevails. When TV program shows a cathedral and does not give a narration, the narrator is unable to describe a cathedral. He assumes that just because Robert’s sense of sight is not functional, he cannot be able to use the other four senses to know how a cathedral looks like. The perception of complete disability is common scenario in the United States of America. Many people imagine that just because an individual is not able to use one sense then they would not be able to use the other senses to perform. This is a perception that has long been disapproved by occurrences, despite it being common. For instance, someone who is blind can use the sense of touch, hearing and smell to determine the physical appearance of something. This enables them to make up for their lack of sight (Ronald 97). In the case of Robert, he is able to use his other senses to prove to the narrator that despite the fact that he is not to see, he can still know the physical appearances of objects. By telling the narrator to draw a cathedral to draw a cathedral with his hand on his he able to prove that the other senses can work perfectly to make up for his lack of sight. By the time they are done with this activity, the narrator is convinced of the capability of using the other senses to make up for the lack of sight. At the end of the story the narrator reveals his amazement at how much he was able to know about the drawing he was making with his eyes closed. In the story, “Little Things”, Raymond Carver talks about a couple who have been going through marital problems. The story draws attention to general stories that a couple might go through in a marriage. However, the funny thing is that the author does not reveal the reason behind the argument between the couple. The argument later advances and they start arguing about who among them will take custody of their child. The argument gets to a level where they start physically pulling the child from different directions. The struggle continues till the point when both of them losses grip of the child. There are a number of incidents during the story that depicts a situation of inequality in gender. As much as many people in the United States of America have the impression that gender inequality is a thing of the past in the United States of America. This is a perception that can be clearly proved wrong especially if someone looks at the things that are happening in their societies (Jacobs and Gerson 123). The only thing that cannot be disputed is the fact that the rate at which gender discrimination incidents of gender inequalities occur in the United States of America has significantly reduced of the past decade (Robberts 84). There are still many things that should be done in order to reduce the rate at which gender inequality cases occur. The first incident in the story that depicts inequality in terms of gender is the moment when the couple was physically struggling against each other in order to gain custody of the baby. The author tells of how the husband tries to use physical force so that the wife would let go of the child. At a point he even uses physical force to push the wife away from the baby. The author states that, “In the near-dark he worked on her fisted fingers with one hand and with the other hand he gripped the screaming baby up under an arm near the shoulder.” This is a common occurrence in the United States of America. Many female citizens in the United States of America have suffered physical harassment due to the fact that they are women. The common perception that women are generally physically weak when compared to men highly contribute to the occurrence of such cases.it is very rare to find a physical assault case where a man is the victim. On the other hand, researches have it that women are physically assaulted more often as compared to men (Rosenfeld 101). This is a trend that shows that the problem revolving around gender inequality is not yet solved as many people would like to believe. There is still allot of things that can be done to make sure that gender inequality in the united states of America is completely dealt with. Through the story, a reader can also see that despite being inequality treated by men in the society, women have not given upon fighting for their equality. In the story, despite the fact that the husband tries to use physical force to gain an upper hand in the struggle for the baby, the wife does not give up on struggling for the baby. The author, Carver, states that, “She felt her fingers being forced open. She felt the baby going from her. No! she screamed just as her hands came loose.” The wife believed that she had equal right to be with the baby just as the husband had. This is the reason as to why she way not willing to let go of the baby. The other way through which the story shows that gender inequality is still present in the United States of America is the manner in which the author uses different types of verbs in reference to the two characters in the short story. The verbs that he chooses to use for the man are different from the ones he chooses to use in the case of the woman. As opposed to the verbs used for the woman, the verbs used for the man appear to be calculated and concrete. For instance, he uses verbs such as, “went out”, “fastened”, “moved toward”, and “came up” (Carver 153). The choice for these verbs shows that the author sees the man to be unequal to the woman in this story. The fact that he does not use verbs of this nature when referring to the woman tells allot about the opinion that the author have on the difference between men and women. The difference in the manner in which men and women are regarded does not only appear in this story but in real life too. In many cases men are always treated with higher regard as compared to their female counterparts (Bartels 54). It is something that is so common that even people who would say that they believe in gender equality will in some instances find themselves doing it in their daily endeavors. This can be seen in all the aspects of human life in the United States of America. Looking at the economic, political, and social aspects of human life, someone will easily notice that men are more dominant in all aspects. It is clearly evident that disability and gender inequalities are things that are still evident in the United States of America. Some argues that its human nature. However, given the developments that have been made so far in terms of equality, this argument can easily be disputed. There are allot that are yet to be done with regard to these forms of inequality. The stories that have been discussed above show the extent to which disability and gender inequality is still prevalent in the modern society. Given the depiction made by the story, it will be false to claim that disability and gender inequality is a thing of the past. Work Cited Carver, Raymond. “Little Things” in Where I’m Calling From. New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1988. Print. Carver, Raymond. Cathedral .New York: Knopf, 1983. Print. Jacobs, Jerry A, and Kathleen Gerson. The Time Divide: Work, Family, and Gender Inequality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. Internet resource. Larry M. Bartels. Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009. Print. Patterson, John. The Bill of Rights: Politics,Religion and the Quest for Justice. New York: iUniverse, 2004. Print. Robberts, Sam. "Poverty Rate Is Up in New York and Income Gap Is Wide. Census Data Show.” 24th September 2013. New York Times. Online. 12th October 2013. Ronald Takaki. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2007. Rosenfeld, Jake. "The meaning of poverty and Contemporary Quantitative Poverty Research.” The British Journal of Sociology (2010): 103-110. Read More