Justification and Grace

1987: Correlates to the point in, "The River" that the sorrow and sins of people can be erased when they are sunk into the river. The river serves as a place to alleviate people of their sufferings. It's a new start. It's the river that holds sin, moving towards the Kingdom of God to be washed away.

1988: Harry takes part in "new life" by adopting the name Bevel. It is when he becomes this new person where his conversion and new understanding of religion come into play. He goes off with Mrs. Connin to become a member of the church through Baptism.

1989: Harry is converted when he is first led to believe that Jesus Christ is his savior and not a term for swearing. He is then "completely" converted when he is baptized by Father Bevel.

1990 Connects to the scene where Bevel is "free from fault" when he frees the pig, but it is done so because the boys told him not because he desired to do so. This is an example where his action is justified because his motivations weren't led by sinful desires.

1991 Connects to the idea of accepting God when Harry accepts the idea that Jesus Christ created him.

1992: The Passion of Christ connects to the idea that Harry sacrifices his old way of life for the new religious position that he took on with the event of Baptism.

1993: The cooperation between God's grace and man's freedom is seen when Harry submits to the will that he be baptized. He allows the preacher to baptize him by cooperating with the preacher, but he also cooperates with the spiritual relationship that is supposed to develop from that sacrament.

1994: God's love is manifested through Mrs. Connin's will to step in as a maternal figure for Harry. Jesus' love was seen when he lent out his care for the lame, sick, marginalized, etc. Respectively, Mrs. Connin does the same thing for Harry.

1995: Connects to the idea that Harry's inner spiritual self is alive once he is baptized. That marks the moment where the Holy Spirit can work his influence upon him.

1996: Harry becomes an adopted son of God once he is baptized by the preacher because he becomes a part of the Kingdom of God through baptism.

1997: Harry's prior learning about Jesus being his creator can now be affirmed once he becomes baptized because he is now fully through with the process of being a dedicated child of God.

1998: God is Mr. Paradise in the story. He reveals himself to Harry, but his appearance is not one in which Harry can decipher the separation of a higher power, and simply a boulder. He gave Harry protection while he was in the river, even though Harry had no idea

1999: Harry going into the water symbolizes him being sanctified and healed of sin to receive grace.

2000: The habitual grace is seen when Harry wants to go back to experience the baptism again. He wants to relive the sanctifying grace again because of the truth he's trying to find.

2001: Mrs. Connin's preparation of man is seen when she prepares to take Harry to be baptized to receive God's grace through baptism.

2002: Harry searches for truth by wanting to go back to the river to re-play the baptism. He wants to know the real significance beyond the practical visual that he experiences. So he goes back to the river to see if he can find the truth.

2003: Harry being baptized was another person in the human race who needed to be one with God. He marks as one less person who is on their path to the kingdom.

2004: Harry's graces of state which are his parents will make it harder for him to implement his newfound spiritual self

2005: Harry goes back to the river because he is in search of the "truth", but "grace escapes our experiences" making it hard for him to rely on his feelings to prove that he is saved. His feelings will only trick him, but will not give him what he's looking for. However, he will be able to the proof of God's grace through the blessings that God presents.

Trust

Unlike the residents in Charles’ town, he happens to be the one person who looks pass Mr. McLeod’s face. However, his familiarity with Mr. McLeod evolved over time due to his ability to gradually become responsive to authority. Throughout Charles’ life people always spoke at him instead of to him. People such as his mother and Gloria only saw the little child that he was instead of the actual person inside, who was seeking comfort and help. They bossed him around, but never truly understood him or took the time out to nurture and help his fragile heart. He lacked a father figure and sought the answers through his spacing out, which involved his dreaming about different things. When he met Mr. McLeod, he was resistant towards McLeod’s authority because he was not used to submitting to it. He was used to taking orders from women, but not a man. Men represent strength and power, and he was able to gradually become responsive to these characteristics through his strengthened trust and shared experiences with McLeod.

                Charles’ ability to let his defiance slowly fade, allowed him to listen to authority which was facilitated by the trust that he had in McLeod. Charles was in search of a father figure. He needed stability and a reliable source to provide him with help when he needed it. Charles had a need, and that need was to get help in passing his Latin exam. Growing up, parents are the first people who children usually go to for help because they seem to have the answers, or they’re capable of providing us with the necessary resources to help us with something. Charles subconsciously sought to get help from McLeod for academic reasons, but also for the emotional element of himself. Along with Charles becoming more knowledgeable in his studies, he also came to trust McLeod through his personal experiences. Initially, Charles had his guard up when he went to McLeod. Progressively, Charles decided to let go of his defiance and listen to McLeod. His first act of trust was when he dug the holes. He allowed himself to listen and see the outcome. He took a risk, because in his mind he thought that digging holes was absolutely absurd. He didn’t understand the concept or outcome of digging holes, but he took a chance, and this chance derived from his willingness to trust McLeod. Charles’ trust of McLeod grew further when he started to share experiences with McLeod. The act of friendship is developed through trust and experience, and this is what Charles and McLeod encountered. Charles started to see that the town’s perception of McLeod did not match up with the person that he saw. McLeod played with him, taught him, cared for him, listened to him, and rewarded him. As they spent time with each other, they were more inclined to trust one another because they were exposed to each other’s personalities. Through the sharing of time, they not only got to know each other but they had to sacrifice their time for each other. Their relationship evolved into a fondness for each other, and they began to truly trust each other based on their willingness to become vulnerable and through their experiences.

                McLeod is so serious about Charles making his own judgment to discern whether the rumors are true because McLeod wants to see if Charles really has the capacity to believe these rumors despite all the genuine experiences they had together. It’s easy for Charles to resort to rumors that the majority upholds. But McLeod does not want Charles to do this. He wants him to depend on his own reasoning and understanding of their relationship to make his decision. Compared to the people in the town, Charles knows McLeod, and he knows the type of person he is. Those townspeople don’t know him, nor did they ever take the time to get to know him. Their judgments are based off of their own opinions and are not true because they have never spent time with McLeod. Whereas, Charles came to trust and open himself up to McLeod. He went to him when he had no one else to turn to, and McLeod served as a shoulder to lean on. He never dared hurt or take advantage of Charles, which is why he didn't want Charles to automatically believe the misrepresentations. Instead, McLeod wants Charles to turn to his understanding of whom McLeod is and not other people’s notions of him.

What is Knowledge?

                Knowledge is reality, because it’s through knowledge where people are able to get a broader sense of reality. Knowledge is being aware of different matters. In order to obtain knowledge, we have to experience things in order to gain a new perspective on the adventures that we face every day. However, knowledge is only gained according to our desire to receive it. We can only soak up so much information based on our willingness to be aware of everything. But it is not horrible because our brain filters out the information that we aren’t using at the moment. Knowledge varies from person to person because no two people are alike. Therefore, because knowledge is based on experience, everyone’s knowledge is not the same. Some know more than others because of more experience while others are not experienced so their knowledge is not as broad.

                To know something also means to be familiar with something. It’s when we are aware of the characteristics of this thing. When we are familiar with something we are comfortable which makes it easy for us to interact with these things because knowledge and familiarity make it easier to deal with things.

                The idea that knowledge is reality goes on to show that everyone’s knowledge is going to be based on their experiences. All of these forms of experience and knowledge will differ because no one person lives the same life. Therefore, just because two people have different forms of knowledge, it doesn’t mean they’re wrong.

Cathedral Questions

                In Cathedral a blind man visits his in-laws in Connecticut, and while he’s there he also visits a friend. His friend is a woman that he’s grown to admire throughout the years. They became friends when she started to work for him, but after she left they continued to stay in touch through videotapes. They continue to stay in communication with one another, and he finally visits the woman and her husband while in Connecticut. Upon his visit, the husband is wary about the idea of having a blind man in his house. The husband also encounters surprises while he learns new things that challenge his initial perception of blind people. At the end of the story, the husband puts himself in the blind man’s shoes, by closing his eyes to assist the blind mind in drawing cathedrals.

                I’ve always been kind of indifferent towards this story because I never really found much spark to it. I found it to be uneventful regarding conflict and climax. In my opinion, nothing monumental or interesting really happens. I also didn’t like the use of not using the character’s names. Instead Carver referred to the woman and man as “the husband” or “the wife” which irritated me because I’m so used to reading a story with character’s names.

1.       The narrator was not looking forward to the visit of the blind man because he didn’t know the blind man which made him uncomfortable with the idea. He also didn’t like the idea of the man being blind because the thought of having a blind person in his house bothered him.

2.       The blind man’s touching of the wife’s face represents the idea of the blind man “seeing” her because he’s trying to familiarize himself with the shape of her features to form pictures in his head that could help draw out a visual picture of her face. Her writing of the poetry relates to her desire to be seen because in poetry you can express emotions and feelings. She desires to show the blind man the influence he had on her emotions through the poems. Her attempted suicide relates to her desire to be seen because if she puts herself at risk, her actions will demand the attention of someone to care for her needs. Her vulnerability and drastic measures that she took to be “seen” revealed to her husband that she was unhappy.

3.       Receiving someone else’s friend means taking the time out to get to know that person as if they were your own friend. It’s the act of veering away from your own personal opinions about that person to welcome them in order to make them feel comfortable.

4.       I think Robert saw Beulah because he was able to see the real person that she was without the distraction of her appearance. Him being blind forced him to really understand Beulah because her face wasn’t the thing that drove his attraction to her but it was more so of the person inside of her. To see someone is to be able to be intuitive with their emotions, therefore you know what’s going on beneath the veil that they carry around. To be seen by someone else is to have someone that understands and knows you well without having to seek for abnormalities in your personality.

5.       The characters smoke pot to pass time and to relieve the uncomfortable air while in conversation with someone. The act of two people smoking pot together allows them to have one common thing to share and discuss, instead of focusing on the awkward pauses.

6.       The churches reveal that the people think that God is a powerful being who is lavish and superior to all other people. I concluded this because these cathedrals are grand and uphold respect for its true purpose which is God.

7.       The author had a hard time describing the cathedral because he didn’t know how to describe the idea of a cathedral to a man who had never seen one before. The husband “sees” beyond his visual capabilities when he closes his eyes.