Raymond Carver Cathedral

To think a cathedral could make somebody navigate thru their mind and find a bigger purpose in their life it is an unlikely fulfillment and an abnormal conclusion but a probable outcome of The Cathedral a short story by Raymond Carver. There is symbolism, themes, characters and learning experiences from this text. The short story conveys into a mindset where it would make most people rethink how they reflect, feel, and see things in their environment. This being stated because a blind man made a capable individual of seeing, see what the blind man could see. The Author Raymond Carver writes in a simplistic and easy to follow style almost shadowing the characteristics of the main character of the story, a simple husband which his own insecurities

and point of views lead him to an out of body experience. The main attractions are the characters and the symbolism being shared in the story.
The husband a shallow, bother, low self-esteem, lack of confidence, jealous at times, but comprehensive if given the right setting man demonstrates how our vision can impair us from seeing what is in front of us as ironic as that sounds. Only when the husband is able to place himself into Robert's outlook he can develop a vision and feel an experience that he once never felt before. Robert an old friend of the wife which comes to visit her after his own wife passes away, because the wife is speaking highly of Robert the husband insecurities come and he even takes us back when the wife had her first marriage and almost committed suicide because they were moving frequently leaving her unstable. Robert is blind which is a major part of how the husband treats Robert through the story. Robert an enthusiastic, eloquent, intriguing, open minded, and optimistic personality finds himself improving the mental health of the husband by making him feel with touch instead of feeling with his eyes which a visual can be superficial and sometimes you would not get the full picture rather than with a touch. The wife at times distant with the husband, had being exchanging audio tapes with Robert for the last ten years. She knew him from work and became close friends after she left they kept in touched and now they had the chance to see each other and extremely cheerful once Robert comes to the apartment. These characters make up the story and they all share a great amount of symbolism together.
The characters in the story are all important to the plot but also symbolism is present.

We see in the wife how straightforward she is but at times she cannot express herself fully just like the husband she does this when she gets upset and throws the potato to the ground in anger. Makes it feel as there is an underlying problem going on that the reader does not know about. Robert means hope to the wife because he is one of the oldest friends she has. She and her husband do not have mutual friends and she hopes for him to recognize the blind man as a possibility for him to make friends and share something in common to bring them closer she emphasizes that if he loves her that he would be nice to Robert therefor it is visible the pressure that is out in the husband to perform well when he meets Robert and understand that he is a dear friend of his wife. The wife trying to pay attention to Robert forgets how her husband feels about this situation and underestimates the narrator feelings. In the short story we realize that contact is always the best connection you can have, examples are when the blind says this beats the tapes when he is talking to the wife also at the end when the husband creates the painting of the cathedral instead of dictating it to Robert. For the narrator the routine the monotony, and his own limited vision leads him to encounter an experience that he once never felt before it was describing a picture to a blind man without having to speak a word. Meanwhile this was going on the wife had fallen asleep and all of this progress between them was occurring. Again, something amazing that is not visible. The ending concludes abruptly because it does not say if the husband and Robert became good friends or the wife gets closer to the husband because of his newly relationship with one of her friends or if he just went back to being superficial and at times ignorant. In spite of the narrator's jokes, and exaggerated assumptions. He is more blind than

Robert because his eyesight is useless when he cannot even describe what he is seeing. The Cathedral is a symbol of faith, conversion, creativity and strength and is therefore a substantial component of Carver's story. Symbolizing a conversion at the end of story and correspondingly a man that is not religious could believe in the power to translate a message thru art. One could think of the blind man as a therapist, helping the husband to dig a little deeper and feel the true meaning of seeing without his eyes. In the story the husband calls Robert the blind man until they get closer and he realizes that Robert is not as bad as he thought. A point where the narrator fails to recognize is that he could become the next divorce of his wife because by the way she was acting and the way he spends his time with her it did not seem as they are trying to develop in their relationship.
The story of Raymond Carver even though written simplistically gives us a deep teaching and meaning. Living in today's culture and lifestyle where everything is fast paced, and we rarely take a time to wonder off and experience what is around us we become over filled with our routine and monotony. Maybe the blind man has a solution and it is to feel what is in front of us. Most likely the husband took this advice and would like to improve his relationship with his wife by paying more attention to her.