Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” is narrated by a man who is unhappy that his wife is friends with a blind man. He has not ever known any blind people in his life and he has many ill conceived conceptions about them and how they perceive the world. The narrator unfolds the story slowly to show his own lack of perception with regard to his wife and the world around him. He comes to realize that perhaps the man that cannot see with his eyes can “see” reality better than he can. The narrator makes clear his annoyance with the fact that his wife’s friend is blind. He tells us “…his being blind bothered me” (261). He wonders how a woman could love a blind man and how terrible it must have been to not be able to see his own wife with his eyes before she died or that his dead wife’s …show more content…
For the first half of the story we only knew him as the blind man. Likewise, we only know his first husband as the officer. Once he and the blind man come together he starts calling him Robert. It is not long before he warms to Robert. It could be the drinks they shared acting as social lubricant, but the tone of his attitude toward Robert changes for the better. He is impressed by Robert’s ability to navigate through the social occasions of meeting new people and sharing a meal and drinks. He begins to realize that Robert’s blindness is not nearly the handicap that he had imagined. When the narrator and Robert are watching TV, there is an educational program on about cathedrals. The narrator attempts to describe a cathedral to Robert, but is unable to do so. His perception of the world around him is very shallow and superficial. He sees the surface of things, but he does not see deeply. When Robert asks him to show him a cathedral by drawing together, he finds a deeper connection. When Robert has him close his eyes, the connection goes deeper still and he finally realize that it is he himself that has been
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.
In “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, it is a story about an interaction between the author, the author’s wife, and the wife’s blind friend, Robert. The blind friend was staying the night at the author’s house and he did not like the idea of it, but since it was his wife’s friend he dealt with it. The author gave characteristics to the blind guy and himself. The author assumed that blind people can’t do anything like a normal person does. The author said that “Did you have a good train ride?’
Cathedral how blindness is used as a metaphor. “Cathedral” is a passionate story by Raymond Carver about a blind man who is trying to find company after his wife passed away. Overall, the story is a funny situation, in which the blind man leads the narrator outside of his comfort zone. One of the biggest metaphors during the story is the blind man, or the blind leading the blind. At the end of the story, both men collaborate on a drawling of a cathedral.
In the beginning of the story, the narrator is described as hateful towards the blind man that his wife has invited to stay with them. Robert, the blind man has just lost his wife and decided to visit his old friend (the narrator’s wife) while he was down to see his in-laws. The narrator was not jealous or vein about the man, but more so intimidated and uneasy about his blindness as a whole. He based his ideas on the blind as what he saw in the movies as being “the
After filling the readers in, he picks up the story with a conversation between him and his wife before the visit. He expresses some uncomfortableness with him staying at their house since he does not know Robert, and his blindness made his nervous. His wife asks him to try and make him comfortable
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.
During their channel surfing, Roberts tells the narrator that he’s all right with watching whatever because, “...I’m always learning something. Learning never ends. It won’t hurt me to learn something tonight.” This line represents the entirety of their time together, Robert learning as he always does, and the narrator following his lead, getting to know and learn about Robert, who he was so uncertain about, as he does the same for him. As they learn about one another, they’re also learning about other things from the TV, consolidating what little miscellaneous knowledge they have about cathedrals and other things related to them (285).
As the story develops, the narrator grows to like Robert, and as the story ends we see the two draw a cathedral together which allows the narrator see a new side of everything and allow for him to be more connected to the blind man and his wife. This plot is commonly seen in many different media’s, but it’s used more cleverly here, as it allows for characters to flow with the story while not sacrificing the story being mediocre. In saying this, the plot of this story is very character-centric and is vital to helping to advance the story. Within this story the character
An old friend of the narrator "Robert,'' is the blind man in the story. When the sighted man tries to explain what a cathedral is like to the blind man, his words fail. One man relies on vision to communicate, the other does not. It was like they spoke different languages. At the end of the story when the narrator says "My eyes were still closed.
The narrator’s eyes are closed and he is being led by a blind man, yet he is able to see. Carver never explains what it is the narrator sees, but there is the sense that he has found a connection and is no longer detached or isolated. The narrator is faced with a stark realization and glimmer of hope. Hope for new views, new life and probably even new identity. Even the narrator’s wife is surprised by the fact that her husband and Robert really get along together.
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 asks about the narrator’s religion which brings them to the topic of Cathedrals. Since Robert is blind he doesn’t know exactly what a Cathedral is and only can picture a normal building and what he thinks it might be like. As they continue to talk, Robert asks for some paper and a pen. Robert takes Bub’s hand and tells him to draw a Cathedral. Robert continues to cheer Bub on and continue drawing.
He takes note of the simple things, like the awkward silence at dinner, where “we ate everything there was to eat on the table,” (Carver 45), and how they “got up from the table and left the dirty plates,” (Carver 45). Nothing too exciting happens, aside the narrator, when he “asked if he wanted to smoke some dope with me,” (Carver 55). Carver creates a very relatable story that mainly showcases ordinary people doing ordinary things. Although seeming to be anticlimactic for the majority of the story, these dull moments lead to a very important event. Robert and the narrator sit on the couch after the wife has fallen asleep, watching TV, when a documentary about cathedrals comes on.