An Analysis Of Raymond Carver's Cathedral

The unnamed narrator does not see Robert, the blind man, as a person, but as someone different. The grandmother, on the other hand, believes in her appearance and belief that is better than other people. After the challenges they both face, they end up finding enlightenment. In “Cathedral,” the narrator was not certain on how to describe the Cathedral to Robert. The narrator resorts to drawing and with a pen in his hand, he had realized that Robert “closed his hand over my hand” and asks the narrator to “close your eyes” as they drew the Cathedral (75-76).

The author use of the title “Cathedral” was misleading at first. “Cathedral” is about a husband who had an interesting experience with his wife’s blind friend. The narrator, also known as the husband, had difficulty understanding other people thoughts and personal feelings. The narrator knew how important the blind man is to his wife, yet he still makes careless jokes about him. “Maybe I could take him bowling” was a comment made by the narrator after finding out that the blind man was staying over his house.

White Angel “White Angel” is a short story written by author Michael Cunningham. Cunningham is an American author and screenwriter whose best known for his novel The Hours, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1999. “White Angel” is a coming of age story in which the author incorporates point of view and symbolism to bring meaning to the story. The point of view provides knowledgeable and reliable comments of the narrator on events that happened in his past while symbolism is used to show experiences that have an impact on the narrator’s life. Both literary elements of point of view and the repetition of symbols demonstrate how the main character matures into a responsible and independent person from the experiences he encounters

He realizes how smart Robert is, and he keeps being shocked as the night goes on. While listening to a show about Cathedrals, Robert asks the narrator to describe him a Cathedral. The narrator tries his hardest, but can not do it. To combat this, Robert takes the narrator's hand and has him close his eyes and together they draw the church just from memory. After drawing the Cathedrals, the narrator describes the picture as, “ It’s really something” (103).He learns how seeing is not everything in life, and how wrong he was with his assumptions about Robert.

Robert literally can’t see, but he does obtain vision only on a deeper level. The narrator isn’t too enamored with the idea of another man coming to his home. He is insensitive and makes some harsh comments that make Robert feel a little uncomfortable. Due to his callous and unsympathetic personality, the narrator is never able to connect with his wife while Robert is instantly able to. Robert comes to visit the narrator and his wife at their home for the first time.

A Cathedral is a place for people to go and worship, to connect with God. By drawing the Cathedral the narrator is in some ways also making a connection. For the first time, he appears to be able to see. The narrator's ignorance and preconceptions fade away because he sees that although Robert has the gift of knowing and understanding people. There is also a sense of irony at the end of the story.

Robert Ross’s journey throughout the novel leaves him unable to recognize his reflection, expecting to see the image of a god, he sees the image of a scarecrow. Findley writes, “He’d thought he would stand and see himself like a god in the glass—and there he was: a scarecrow” (Findley169). Findley portrays Robert’s moment of blindness as a connection to the changes he undergoes throughout the novel. Robert at this point in unable to recognize himself as the young boy he started off as or the hero he wanted to become. Instead, the war strips his character and left him feeling as if he has no connection to who he used to be, truthfully, he isn’t and in this scene Robert understands this.

The narrator curiously asks Robert if he knew how to describe a Cathedral. Unsure, Robert tells him to draw one for him so he can better understand. The narrator puts Robert’s hand on his so that he can feel the motion of him drawing. “He found my hand, the hand with the pen. He closed his hand over mine” (3.30).

(Pg. 32) When trying to describe what a cathedral looked like to the blind man the husband is struggling. But the real reason he can not describe the Cathedral is because it has no meaning to him because he admits he is not religious. After drawing the Cathedral and “feeling” the movement this opened a door in his mind and made it visible. Robert, the wife, and the husband all gain insight through the drawing of the Cathedral.

“His being blind bothered me” (Carver 1). In Raymond Carver’s short story Cathedral, Carver establishes an ignorant narrator, who is dependent on alcohol and fixated upon physical appearance; he juxtaposes the narrator to a blind man who sees with his heart rather than his eyes. Through indirect characterization, Carver contrasts the narcissistic narrator to the intuitive blind man while utilizing sight as a symbol of emotional understanding. He establishes the difference between looking and seeing to prove that sight is more than physical.

In the story, the narrator’s narrow mindset is challenged over and over again as Robert breaks most stereotypes that the narrator held. As these stereotypes are broken, the narrator begins to feel more comfortable with Robert, and sincerely tells him that he is “glad for the company”. This release from prejudice culminates in the cathedral drawing scene of the story, where the narrator finally lets go of his bias towards blind people. Once the narrator closes his eyes, he is seemingly equal to Robert, and he consequently begins to understand Robert’s perspective. His newfound empathy towards Robert demonstrates how he has lost his prejudice towards him.

Throughout the story the reader can affirm that the wife has a deep, strong relationship with the blind man. The wife and the blind man share an intimate and vulnerable moments together; one includes when she lets him touch her face so he can remember her. Similarly, the narrator gets to share an intimate moment with Robert that leads to an epiphany. The epiphany that the narrator experiences when drawing a cathedral refers to seeing life from Robert, the blind man’s, point of view and seeing the struggles as well as life experiences a blind man must encounter on a daily basis.

Furthermore, the narrator is starting to realize that he enjoys Robert’s company as well as compelled to explore Robert’s eye sight limits, to help Robert visualize a cathedral. The narrator tries to describe a cathedral, but failed to do so, and retreats back into cynicism. The narrator’s response Robert’s question was, “the truth is, cathedrals don’t mean anything special to me. Nothing cathedrals.

Robert just replied to her saying they are drawing a cathedral. The blind man ran his fingers over the paper, and places his hand over the narrator which is the beginning to the narrator’s meaningful life lesson. The man with lots of prejudices against blind people, that jealous husband who thought that the blind man has feelings for his wife began to draw. Robert encourages the narrator to close his eyes and keep drawing.

The narrator in the story represents a person who sees but cannot “see” and Robert as the character who can “see” but lacks the ability to see with his eyes. The cathedral that the narrator draws with the blind man represents the ability to see beyond the surface of things, and find underlying deeper meanings to things. Before drawing with Robert the narrator was so close