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A short story about a couple who interactions with a blind man, about the overly masculine presence of the narrator and his desire to the center of conversation, how the wife struggles with depression and lack of self confidence, and eventually pushes back and triumphs. Carver paints a mental image throughout Cathedral of how being close-minded and ignorant comes to bite the narrator in the end. From the beginning of the thought provoking short story, the narrator expresses his unhappiness and borderline jealousy over the fact that his wife has a close male companion, a blind man named Robert. He recalls a small portion of his wife’s personal history, remembering how she has been friends with Robert since her first marriage and how she had
shared everything, from good things to terribly awful things, with Robert. The narrator shares details about how his wife became terribly depressed and even tried to kill herself but failed. He was certainly not ready for Robert to visit, busy crafting up stereotypes and other prejudices about Robert and the blind. The narrator is shocked at the simple fact that Robert has a beard, thinking that the blind couldn't have beards, and also condemned him for being a heavier set man. From simple analysis, one can gather that the narrator has quite the drinking problem, over the span of the dinner alone the narrator has at least three drinks while quickly eating dinner. The narrator reasons that Robert’s blindness makes him simply unable to make a woman happy, let alone have any kind of normal life. The narrator is, at first, very confident that the ability to physically see with one’s actual eyes is the the only way for one to perceive things and puts no effort into seeing anything beyond the surface, which is why he doesn’t really know his wife very well and is not emotionally connected with her on any level. Robert seems to have the ability to “see”, or process things and auditory language on a much deeper level than the narrator. Even though Robert can’t physically see the narrator’s wife, he understands her more deeply than the narrator does because he truly listens and dissects what she says and relates to her feelings through the sharing of their tapes.
The close outside friendship between the narrator’s wife and Robert, the blind man, provokes the narrator’s insecurities. This friendship has lasted for ten long years. During those years, they have exchanged countless voice tapes wherein they both tell each other what has happened in their respective lives. Because of this, the narrator feels that his wife has told Robert more than Robert needs to know. The narrator laments, "she told him everything or so it seemed to me" (1054). The narrator’s fear is somehow confirmed when Robert arrives and says that he feels like they have already met (1055). The narrator is left wondering what his wife has disclosed. This murky situation leaves the narrator feeling insecure, especially when he sees the warm interaction between his wife and Robert.
The narrator in Raymond Carver’s "Cathedral" is not a particularly sensitive man. I might describe him as self-centered, superficial, and egotistical. And while his actions certainly speak to these points, it is his misunderstanding of the people and the relationships presented to him in this story which show most clearly his tragic flaw: while Robert is physically blind, it is the narrator who cannot clearly see the world around him.
During this story, the storyteller, who is bias, is drastically changed once a blind man Robert opens the narrator's eyes to understanding the deeper that means of the globe around him. The story primarily focuses on the storyteller and there for the approach Robert changes the narrator's perspective about the world and him. At the end of the story, Robert has a friend, no longer a hazard or an opponent. Absorbing that Robert is a good man, and that his spouse and Robert are just friends. It also presents an acquaintance in mutual, which is somewhat they seem absent. Bub might furthermore improvement a better relationship with his wife.
In Raymond Carver's "Cathedral," the husband's view of blind men is changed when he encounters his wife's long time friend, Robert. His narrow minded views and prejudice thoughts of one stereotype are altered by a single experience he has with Robert. The husband is changed when he thinks he personally sees the blind man's world. Somehow, the blind man breaks through all of the husband's jealousy, incompetence for discernment, and prejudgments in a single moment of understanding.
As a result of his inability to relate with Robert, he thinks his behaviors are odd, and is unable to understand the relationship he has with his wife. His wife worked for this blind man many years ago, reading him reports and case studies, and organizing his "...little office" (Carver 98) in the county's social-service department. He remem¬ bers a story his wife told about the last day she worked for him. The blind man asked her if he could touch her face, and she agreed.
This story is about how the narrator is unable to see what life is really giving him and finds it through a blind man’s eyes, the friend of his wife. Cathedral is a touching story, in my opinion, as it reflects on what many of us, society, take for granted. It shows how important it is to give people a chance and to be able to see the true meaning of what surrounds us even if it is not important to our personal life. Throughout the short story, Carver uses several figurative language to expose the theme of the story.
Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" depicted the interaction between a narrow minded husband, with a limited understanding of the world around him, and a blind visitor, named Robert, that proved to be the catalyst that dramatically changed the husband's view on the world, while they went from being strangers to becoming friends. In the beginning of the story, the husband disliked the concept of his wife bringing her blind friend over to stay since he never had met a blind person before and did not understand it. However, as the story progresses, the husband, through interaction and observation, begins to dispel his fears and misconceptions of Robert and his blindness. With the help of Robert, the husband gains a revelation that changed his view and opened his eyes to the world.
In the story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, it tells of how a blind man is open to new experiences and how he views the world compared to the husband (narrator) who is blinded by the material things of life. The husband is given the gift of sight but the true gift comes from seeing the cathedral. At the beginning of the story, the husband’s outlook on others is filled with stereotypes, discrimination, insecurities and prejudice. After interacting with Robert, his wife's friend, his outlook begins to change significantly.
In Raymond Carver’s story, “Cathedral,” the story tells of how a close outside relationship can threaten a marriage by provoking insecurities, aggravating communication barriers, and creating feelings of invasion of privacy. The husband in the story is given the gift of seeing the cathedral through a blind man’s eyes. Although the title suggests that the story is about a cathedral, it is really about two men who come together and share a vision and realize it is he who is blind. As the story begins, the character of the husband has a negative personality. He lacks compassion, is narrow-minded, and is jealous of his wife’s friendship with a blind man named Robert.
This disconnect is apparent throughout the short story, especially when the wife and the protagonist are talking about his wife’s blind friend, Robert, coming to visit. In this passage the unnamed protagonist nonchalantly states that he could take the blind man bowling. The protagonist’s wife responds to his crude comment with, “If you love me, you can do this for me. If you don’t love me, okay. But if you had a friend, any friend, and the friend came to visit, I’d make him feel comfortable.” (Carver 107). The disconnect is clear because after the wife asks the protagonist to do this one thing for her out of love, the protagonist brushes off what she said and explains he would never have a blind friend staying at their house. The protagonist is most responsible for creating the problem within their relationship; his jealousy causes the disconnect experienced between the two. The protagonist spends much time reflecting on his wife and her past relationship with her ex-husband and her platonic relationship with Robert; therefore, showing his jealousy at her level of connection in her other relationships. When the protagonist talks about his wife's relationship with Robert, he uses short, disconnected sentences. This shortness of thought exemplifies, as Robert Clark notes, “The narration is driven by jealousy: the speaker has not achieved a meaningful connection with his wife the way Robert has” (Clark 109). This disconnect promoted by underlying jealousy is eventually resolved when the protagonist has an epiphany. As the protagonist is sitting with Robert watching a documentary about cathedrals, Robert asks the protagonist to explain what a
Raymond Carver utilizes his character of the husband, who is also the narrator, in his short story "Cathedral." From the beginning of the story the narrator has a negative personality. He lacks compassion, has a narrow mind, is detached emotionally from others, and is jealous of his wife's friendship with a blind man named Robert. He never connects with anyone emotionally until the end of this story.
All of the internal thoughts are from the husband, because he is also the narrator. Inside, the husband is pretty biased of the blind man, yet he is more against the blind man staying with them rather than being for it. The husband never thinks about why he does not feel comfortable having the blind man over, but by the way the wife is happy and smiling, I realized the husbands main reason was because of his own jealousy. During the whole story, the wife talks more to the blind man than she does her husband, and also shows more interest in the blind man. This makes me believe that internally the husband is jealous about all of the attention the blind man is getting from his wife. Later on through the story, especially at the end, the husband’s thoughts of the blind man completely change for the better about the blind man. He starts to see and feel like the blind man, and his whole prejudging and beliefs about the blind man and blind people in general completely shifts. When he draws the cathedral and feels the paper with his eyes closed, he understands what the blind man feels and how he sees the world in his mind. Being able to see what the blind man sees changes the husband’s mood completely. He being to realize that the blind man is much wiser than him, and that he is not just a threat to the husband’s marriage, but actually is just a good friend. When the husband and the blind man are alone and with their own
The unnamed narrator of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” poses as an unreliable narrator for his unaccepting nature towards blind people along with his ignorant perception of many realities in his life that Carver presents for the reader to take into question. The narrator holds prejudice against Robert, a blind man whom the narrator’s wife worked with ten years earlier and eventually befriends. Unperceptive to many of the actualities in his own life, the narrator paints an inaccurate picture of Robert that he will soon find to be far from the truth.
The blind man, however, greets these preconceptions with patience and equanimity, and the end result is a profound realization for the story’s narrator. Throughout “Cathedral”, Raymond Carver employs characterization and purposeful diction to juxtapose the bigoted narrator against the wise blind man in order to advance the underlying theme of the story: persistent empathy and understanding are the forces to end prejudice.
The short story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver is about a woman who has a blind friend who comes to visit her and her husband. Although the husband’s eye sight is normal, he is in the beginning of this story, the one who is "blind." This is shown through the husband’s words and actions, as he is dealing with Robert, the blind man, it is shown that the husband does not understand what Robert’s blindness means or how it affects him as a human being. At first Robert makes the husband very uncomfortable, for the husband does not know what to say or do around the blind visitor. As the story progresses, we can see a change in the husband. Towards the end, the husband, who is also the narrator of the story, seems to be able to see Robert as a person