Best of Week: The Writing of Cathedral

After reading Cathedral, I thought it was a great story. I liked the characters, liked the setting, liked the way the author wrote. But I now know that I didn't have anything close to an appreciation for the brilliance of Raymond Carver's writing. Mr. Allen really opened my eyes to the beauty of his work when he made a point about the shortness of the sentences in the beggining of the story, in comparison to the lengthier sentences as the story progressed. He went on to explain how, in the earlier part of the story, the narrator was close-minded, so the sentences were short and abrupt. However, as the story went on, the narrator's mind was opened and he gained a greater understanding, so the sentences became longer and more elegant. 

Jamie added to this point by offering an explanation for why, at the very end, the sentences became short again. She explained that the narrator had experienced a sort of epiphany, and so he was at a loss for words. I thought both Mr. Allen's original point and Jamie's addition to it were really eye-opening, not just in relation to the reading of Cathedral but also in the process of writing my own short story. I'm now more tuned into the length and rhythm of the sentences I write, so that I can convey feeling and character development through the structure of my writing. It relates back to what Mr. Allen has drilled into our brains from the beggining of the year: form is content. I now realize how true that statement really is.