Alyssa Valerio
En 102



I chose to write about how important it is to understand people, and to let them be themselves. In each of these stories there is at least one character that is unusual or in unusual circumstances. In "Cathedral" by Raymond Carter a mans wife has an old friend that is coming for a visit, but the husband feels uncomfortable because they're visitor is blind, so he doesn't really want him around. I feel like he should've taken a much more open minded approach, because it meant a lot to his wife and she was getting upset with him the whole night for his behavior. But in the end after having to alone with the blind man he finally sees things his way. The blind man had a wife that he met when he was already blind, that he ended up marrying. The husband how ever could not wrap his mind around how a man can meet a woman, marry her, make love to her and never actually lay eyes on her, his thinking was shallow. After sitting with this blind man, and smoking a little bit of weed his way of thinking evolves. Then, going into "A Painful Case" you read about to characters that are unusual. A man, that is very much to himself. He follows the same ordinary routine most days, only sees family when he must and tells a story about himself in his head. He meets a woman, that sparks his interest and he begins seeing her, and spending a lot of time together. They begin to develop deep feelings for each other, but unfortunately the woman is married. The man decides he wants to go and meet the husband which I found extremely strange, but he didn't want to be sneaky. The woman's husband so negligent of his wife doesn't even suspect anyone could be romantically interested in his wife, so they continue to see each other in her home and quite often find themselves alone. I feel like at this point if they cared for each other this much they should have found a way to be together with out having to hide it because they make each other happy and bring highlight each others best aspects. Shame it was to find out that the man decides to call off their secret relationship so she won't be living a lie and they go there separate ways, which to me sounds vaguely familiar considering every romantic novel thats come out lately, but this ending wasn't very sweet at all. Four years pass by, the man had successfully avoided the woman and reverted to his lonely life. One day over breakfast, he comes across a news paper article, documenting the death of the woman he had held so dear. The article discusses how troubling her last 2 years of life were, as she had picked up a habit of going out and drinking every night and coming home late, she was drowning away her sorrow and misery. Only then did the man realize what he had done, he had given himself to this woman and become someone to value her, appreciate her, listen to her and make her feel strong and loved. He realized his fault, and what he had taken from her when he left. She was left without someone to understand her, and lost her footing. Had he stuck around and saw things through, perhaps things would have ended differently for her. I feel if she had that support and understanding she wouldn't have felt so alone, and not have walked the path that ultimately lead to her death.