:: 3 Works Cited
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Relationships in Raymond Carver?s Cathedral and Langston Hughes' Mother To Son


My Idea of family honestly didn't begin until I agreed to marriage and children. Until that moment, in my laxity, I hadn't even considered the many aspects and values a family should consist of. My experience needless to say, laid in shattered pieces long before I took over the reins of raising myself and built a blockade fortress of stoicism. In all seriousness, I often considered never having a relationship, thinking I was incapable of possessing the experience it would take to pursue such an endeavor. Needless to say, I didn't say 'yes' the first time. In spite of this, I did marry; yet my idea of family was built without preconceived ideologies. I've done what I felt was nurturing and beneficial for my children both environmentally and educationally. All in all, my family is successful though we are a work in progress. I'm often overly diligent in their wellbeing out of my heightened need for them what I never had; the experience of a wonderful family that sets the basis for a successful life when life beyond the days of a dreamy child are a hardship all their own. Family relationships, be it any form, is as always a work in progress, yet, with the fiction work of Cathedral by Raymond Carver and with Langston Hughes' poem Mother To Son, we see those with steadfast nerves and unwavering determination can succeed in this precious and challenging undertaking.

When concentrating on the foundation of a promising family, being that of love in marriage in reference to the fiction "Cathedral," I come to see some semblance between my idea of an assuring affinity told by the husband, only referred to as "Bub." Although not blatantly apparent is the husband's love for his wife, he does show it with a bit of a jealous disposition. When referring to his wife's ex-husband, he purposely neglects to even give the guy a name as a result of his envious attitude jeering, "Her officer-why should he have a name? He was the childhood sweetheart, and what more does he want? (818). Besides jealousy, he also expresses many other emotions of a typical loving husband such as: protection, affection, consideration and hurt, with regards to his wife's relationship with her friend Robert, he pouts,

I didn't want him (Robert) to think I'd left the room, and I didn't want her to think I was feeling left out. They talked of things that had happened to them-to them!- these past ten years. I waited in vain to hear my name on my wife's sweet lips: 'and then my dear husband came into my life'-something like that. But I heard nothing of the sort. (822)

She, of course, loves him very much. Showing her expressions of love with complete divulgence of her inner soul he declares, "They'd become good friends, my wife and the blind man. How do I know these things? She told me" (817). Not only that, she also shares her painful past in detail, which is only too much for him to comprehend. He clearly feels love and protection for his wife and proves this with the animosity he only too quickly adopts with mention of Robert's visit, which ultimately turns into an epiphany of understanding for him to his own amazement.

Likewise, in the poem Mother to Son by Langston Hughes, we see another passionate aspect of a healthy and loving relationship of family through cautionary terms in hope for betterment of life. How clearly it illustrates those life lessons we so completely try in hope, not in vain, to bestow upon our children so that they may circumvent their darkest hour upon its' forthcoming yet inevitable arrival.

The mother yields,
Well, son, I'll tell you
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,? (1.1-5).
She continues to illustrate her own struggle,
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been climbin' on
and reachin' landin's
And turning corners
And sometimes goin' on in the dark (2.1-6).
She then warns out of love for her son,
So, Boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
?Don't you fall now
For I'se still goin', Honey,
I'se still climbin'" (2.8-13).

She then reiterates, as a loving and compassionate parent must do so often, "And life for me ain't been no crystal stair" (2.14-15). This poem depicts the use of education in life, yet another aspect of love in family.

These aforementioned examples clearly illustrate a few fine points of beneficial promotion of family lineage. However, in the drama, Soul Gone Home by Langston Hughes, we view an example of family in the opposite extreme. Not only does the mother neglect her son's fundamental needs, resulting in his inevitable death, she lacks genuine remorse for him as well. How plainly she expresses this in, "How could I help havin' you, you little bastard? Your father ruint me- and you's the result?Now, just when you get big enough to work and do me some good, you have to go and die" (141; part 6). We can only hope this extreme exists in the miniscule for our society would truly be destitute indeed. Our need, as a society, for family success is deeply written as 'a work in progress;' never ending or unyielding for our destiny depends so profoundly on it's end result.


Works Cited

Carver, Raymond. "Cathedral." Bridges: Literature Across Cultures. Ed. Steven Pensinger and James Belser. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1994. 817-822.

Hughes, Langston. "Mother To Son" Steven Pensinger and James Belser. 52.

---. "Soul Gone Home." Steven Pensinger and James Belser