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The first story is Great Falls and is about a young boy who lives a simple rural life with his family in Montana. The second story is Cathedral by Ray Carver and is about a married couple who invites a blind man to their house. This essay will compare and contrast the use of point of view in the two stories. Both Great Falls and Cathedral are presented in the first-person point of view. In Great Falls this limits the information the narrator tells the reader while in Cathedral it helps the reader understand the change in the narrators perception of the blind man. Through the use of first person point of view the two stories provide different perspective which plays a part in the way readers perceive the stories.
The two stories share similarities in that they are presented from the first-person point of view. In Great Falls, the narrator is a young boy and through his narration, the reader learns more about their family. In Cathedral, the first person point of view is present and a narrator is a middle-aged man who is also a husband. The narrators lack of self-awareness and insight provides a limited perspective, which allows the reader to understand the narrators isolation and lack of affection. The presence of I and we indicate the use of the first-person point of view. The storys first-person point of view is told from the perspective of the narrator who is either the protagonist or a peripheral character conveying the protagonists story. In Great falls, the young boy describes his life and then switches to other characters. Through the narration of the young boy, the reader learns more about the different people in the boys life.
There are differences in the way the first-person point of view is applied in the two stories. The use of the first-person point of view in Great falls has a limiting effect on the information the reader learns about the other characters. This is one of the disadvantages of the first-person point of view because it provides a limited viewpoint (Millgate, 2019). Throughout the story, the information presented by the narrator is what the reader only learns. For example, since the boy is young, it is difficult for him to discern the emotions of each character which also makes it hard for the reader. In Cathedral the first person point of view assists the reader to learn more about the changes in perceptions of the narrator to the blind man. At the start, the narrator presents himself as cynical and insensitive to the blind man and the wifes incessant interest in the blind man. For example, when talking about the blind mans marriage to Beulah, the narrator comments on the ethnicity of Beulah, which is insensitive.
In summary, the two stories are similar in the way the first-person point of view presents a limited perspective. This helps the reader to immerse themselves into the story and understand the experience of the narrator. The use of the first-person point of view limits the information that the reader knows about the other characters emotions. This is different from Cathedral where the first person point of view helps the reader to understand more about the changes in perceptions of the narrator to the blind man.
Reference
Millgate, M. (2019). William Faulkner: The Problem of Point of View. In Patterns of Commitment in American Literature (pp. 181-192). University of Toronto Press.
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