In Raymond Carver's "Cathedral", the narrator is a very minimal speaker. He just says what is there, that's pretty much it. Most people, however, are at least a little more flamboyant with our words, myself personally (if you haven't noticed) like to use a lot of words, even when I'm texting.
One day, my little brother and I we both texting this girl (at the time my girlfriend, but also my brother's friend), but she just randomly stopped replying to us. Being the thoughtless creatures we are, we continued to text her, until she blew up on each of us. Naturally, we got the message and left her alone, but later she apoligized to us bu explained why she couldn't talk very long.
At this point, a striking difference between my brother and I appeared. Both of us replied differently. Luke's reply was simply, "It's alright, later." My reply on the other hand was, " Don't worry about it, everyone gets stressed every now and then, and us bothering you doesn't help! So I understand, take all the time you need!"
She continued to apoligize to me about it, but just left it alone with my brother, and my brother was mad because I kept texting her even though she said she couldn't talk, but I felt like just using a few words to reply made it sound cold and like I was angry, so I continued to reply when she apoligized.
The point of that story is simply this: at least in my experience, the less words you use, the more bitter and angry you come off. "Cathedral" does a very good job of capturing that style, and it reminded me exactly why I prefer to use a lot more words to get my point across.
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