From Alienation To Freedom

The life of Raymond Carver (1938-1988) is hard and rough:drinking, fighting, the cold war, separation, the bankruptcy and the homeless, as if all the tragic situation in all lives came to him. Under the pen of this scarred author, is the text known as "minimalist":thin and hard, cold but vigor. His works have a very close relationship with his personal life experience. Many of the works draw materials from his own experience. He said he could not help the characters in the novel "to solve the difficulties elegantly", but the gaze into the difficulties and the plight itself is a kind of concern.This kind of concern, in Carver’s novel, is embodied as "from alienation to freedom". Alienation, which the original meaning should be alienation in intimate relationship, this alienation makes people separate from the world and loved ones, and then being forced to return to the individual; freedom, is the internal state of existence, the real return to the individual while a person have to call for a void help from outside. Carver himself also made this "invisible" call towards the literature, when he was pushed by life to the very corner he cannot step back from, he chose to gaze into those cornered characters in the same desperate just like him. Gaze, is also looking back. Only by looking back to himself, the query and description for individual existence can let these seemingly chilled words have a deep of concern.This Paper is divided to five chapters, trying to give a comprehensive analysis through The Cathedral, to grasp the deep concern in carver by study the concern consciousness, decentralized structure, the theme "conjugal relation", the Group portraits forced to freedom, the art tension and religious perspectives.Combining with Carver’s life and works, the introduction leads to the concern consciousness, under the premise of tidying up domestic and foreign research on Carver brought an important clue "from alienation to freedom". The first chapter takes the novel set The Cathedral as a whole entity, analysis its contents and layout, to explore and analyze the decentralized structure(Derrida) which implied, chose the key theme "conjugal relation" discuss the deep concern of carver to people. The second chapter starting from the human living state--paradox, arise a common idea in stories:"From separation to return", leads to the meaning of those who are forced to freedom. The third chapter starting with the exploring on story gaps and the narrative rhythm in Carver’s unique art expression and his concern consciousness. The fourth chapter chose an angle in religious, with the help of Balthasar’s philosophy aesthetics, Wolfgang Iser’s "calling structure", "the Russian idea" discuss the strong religious paradoxical redemption in the novel set The Cathedral.In The Cathedral, Caver quietly described a group portrait "From alienation to freedom", its compact layout, elegant structure, unique artistry cut in the living state of people through an important theme "conjugal relation", reveal the paradoxical picture of life:people in isolation and loneliness predicament was forced to return to self, and from living in solace,they arrived freedom. Throughout the whole set, no matter from the survival level or religious level, Carver holds a strong consciousness. A variety of research methods to explain and demonstrate the connotation have certain enlightening significance for further research on Carver’s work.