Raymond Carver was an American short story writer and poet. He objected to being called a "minimalist" writer. The story "Cathedral" from 1983 describes a man watching a television show about cathedrals in Europe with his wife's friend who is blind. The man provides an understated view of cathedrals, saying they just something to look at on TV.

1. Raymond Carver 1938-1988 “Cathedral” 1983 He was called a “minimalist,” but he objected to the term complaining that the term “smacks of smallness of vision and execution.”

2. “On the screen, a group of men wearing cowls was being set upon and tormented by men dressed in skeleton costumes and men dressed as devils.” (P. 106)

3. Cathedral in Siena “The TV showed this one cathedral.”

4. St Mark’s Cathedral Italy How is the statement below an example of understatement? “I said, The truth is, cathedrals don’t mean anything special to me. Nothing. They’re something to look at on late-night TV. That’s all they are.”

5. Two Cathedrals in Germany Hiedielburg and Cologne

6. Gargoyles

7. Flying Buttresses of Strasbourg

8. The answer appears in the next slide What literary term means (in Greek, agon, or contest) the central struggle between two or more forces in a story?

9. CONFLICT

10. What is the difference between a dynamic character and a flat character?

11. Dynamic Character A Character who, during the course of the narrative, grows or changes in some significant way.

12. What type of rhetorical device is used in the example below? “If you love me, she said, “you can do this for me. If you don’t love me, okay. But if you had a friend, any friend, and the friend came to visit, I’d make him feel comfortable.” She wiped her hands with the dish towel. (top of page 101)

13. Quoting from a Short Story The narrator of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral,” provides background to his wife’s past. He comments on the HELP WANTED ad she saw in the newspaper. “She phoned and went over, was hired on the spot” (99).

14. Literary Terms that apply to “Cathedral” Literary Terms that apply to “Cathedral”

16. metaphors

17. Tone

18. Style

19. epiphanyPoint of view