Nathaniel Hawthorne's “The Birthmark,” Raymond Carver's “Cathedral,” and RandallKenan's “The Foundations of the Earth” illustrate how arrogance undermines knowledge and individual power and humility enhances these qualities. In each story, characters with a parochial worldview encounter people who challenge them to change. Other perspectives are available if they are able to let go of their superior attitudes. For example, Hawthorne's protagonist, Aylmer, believes he has the ability and right to create perfection. He views a birthmark on his wife, Georgiana, as evidence of a flaw that must be eliminated at all costs. His assistant, Aminadab (an earthly alter-ego) remarks, “If she were my wife, I would never part with this birthmark” (Hawthorne 531). He does not say, “I would let it happen” or “I would tolerate it,” but rather “I would never part with it.” This interpretation is so antithetical to Aylmer's that it calls for investigation. “What are you thinking, Aminadab? or “What is it about this birthmark that I find so ugly that you would cherish?” Aylmer does not ask these questions. Arrogance stops him. It takes humility to consider alternative points of view. New ideas do not come to Aylmer's mind and he does not develop. His arrogance culminates in Georgiana's death. In the other two stories, however, the characters mature by humbly opening themselves to diverse perspectives, thereby gaining knowledge and individual power.1 Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral" opens with a narrator whose wife has invited a blind friend to spend the night. The narrator depersonalizes the man from the start and repeatedly throughout the story by referring to him, not by name, but as "the blind man" (Carver 513). He admits that hi...... middle of paper ......h. On the other hand, arrogance stifles growth by excluding different perspectives. There is nothing left but what we started with; the mind becomes a closed box of stifling inflexibility or a Pandora's box of anger and blame. Sometimes arrogance leads to a fate like the one Georgiana and Aylmer experienced in Hawthorne's short story. Works Cited Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The birthmark.” Read literature and write arguments. Ed. Missy James and Alan Merickel. Fourth ed. Boston: Longman, 2011. 527-38. Print.Carver, Raymond. "Cathedral." Read literature and write arguments. Ed. Missy James and Alan Merickel. Fourth ed. Boston: Longman, 2011. 513-23. Print. Kenan, Randall. “The foundations of the Earth”. Read literature and write arguments. Ed. Missy James and Alan Merickel. Fourth ed. Boston: Longman, 2011. 149-61. Print.