Robert, And The Narrator In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

In the short story Cathedral, by Raymond Carver, there is a direct contrast between a blind man named Robert, and the narrator. The narrator has full use of his senses, and yet he is limited to the way he sees things, and the way he thinks. Robert however, has a very different outlook on life and how he sees things, as well as the use of his senses. At the end of the story, Robert has the narrator close his eyes to try and get him to experience the world the way he does. The narrator ends up being able to not only see the way Robert does, but he also is able to feel the world in a completely different way. The author suggests that the mind is most important in how people view things, and the judgements we make are based on what we see in our heads, instead of what is really there.

From the beginning of the story, and throughout most of it until the end, the narrator makes comments about his dislike for blind people. He is unwilling to meet Robert, his wife’s friend of 10 years because he can’t see. The narrator is so fixed on his physical handicap that it makes him unable to try and get to know Robert’s character at all. His

stubbornness to accept Robert in turn makes him blind to the person that Robert is.

Robert and the narrator finally meet, and although cordial, the author isn’t seeing beyond Robert’s blindness. A turning point in the story is when Robert and the narrator are watching a television program together. The wife of the narrator has disappeared upstairs, and the narrator is now feeling even more uncomfortable being alone with Robert. He doesn’t know what to say, and instead of trying to connect and talk with Robert, the narrator just offers him a drink and some marijuana instead. The narrator seems to drink alcohol as a pastime, while Robert likes to chain-smoke as his. These two things seem to allow the narrator and Robert to be on the same level, and allows the narrator to see Robert as “more” of a person, as he didn’t expect Robert to smoke. The drinking and cigarette smoking serves as a contrast in the repetitions guiding these two through life. Despite not having any handicaps, the narrator’s life is lived seemingly unfulfilled, while Robert surpasses his through imagination and experiment.

The narrator is resistant of getting to know Robert, and resistant of unfamiliar things. Robert is the opposite, as we see when he decides to try smoking marijuana for his first time. Robert seemingly tries to make the most of his experiences, and in return his life seems to have more personal meaning. The narrator, while not having any handicaps seems to be empty and not to see much meaning in life because there isn’t much that is significant to him. He states that, "I don't believe in [religion]. In anything... Cathedrals don't mean anything special to me. Nothing... They're something to look at on late-night TV. That's all they are" (108). There is a sense that the narrator leads an unsatisfactory life, with a very narrow minded view of life.

The turning point of the story is Robert and the narrator are watching a television program about cathedrals. There are images and music playing on the program, and the narrator realizes that Robert can’t see what’s on the screen. The narrator then decides to try and explain what a cathedral looks like, but finds he can’t give a good enough description of what it is. Robert and the narrator have a very intimate moment where they try and draw the cathedral together. When the narrator closes his eyes and uses his mind to draw the cathedral, his eyes are opened.

Raymond Carver hints at that the opinions formed in our minds are large handicaps to socializing, reasoning, and learning.

The fact that Robert is blind is stated quite frequently in this story. Even though we know he has a visual handicap, he is very open minded. The narrator however, can see just fine, but is very close minded. The close mindedness seems to be more of a problem for the narrator than Robert’s blindness. The narrator has no friends, and a life of no significance. In drawing the cathedral, the narrator finds not being able to see can be liberating. and seems to help him let go of his prejudices, and come to accept a new way of seeing. This story shows us that we can prevent ourselves from seeing what is really there by blinding ourselves, but that we have the ability to open our minds and seeing what is really

there.