The Long Distance Friendship
The wife in Raymond Carver’s story “Cathedral” is a nice and caring character who lives her life through poetry. In addition, the wife uses poetry to express the way she feels towards important events that happens in her life. She also uses tapes to continue her long distance friendship between an old time friend who is a blind man and who she also used to work for. The wife reconnects with her old blind friend whose name is Robert, and she also invites him into to her home.
The friendship between the wife and the blind man first started in Seattle, when she had worked for him during the summer. The wife was very friendly towards robert as she helped him with court papers, organizing his office, and reading
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For example, she explains to the blind man in the tapes that she was cutting off people from her life and she tried to kill herself. However, her officer husband at the time finds her laying in the bathtub past out and calls the ambulance as a result from this she just got sick and threw up.
A third important event that happens to the wife was when she gets a divorce from her military husband. After the divorce was over she put it all onto tapes and sends it over to the blind man. Over the years the wife had a strong relationship with Robert who was an important part of her life. She told him everything about herself and what was going on in her life. Their relationship continue to develop as the years went a long by sending each other
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The tapes became very important to the wife as she continued to send tapes to Robert, in addition Robert also sent tapes to the wife explaining what was going on in his life. For example, Robert sent a tape to the wife explaining about his relationship towards a woman who he later married. Her name was Beulah. Robert explains in the tapes that he had met Beulah after the wife stopped working for him at the end of summer when she moved away from Seattle. He goes on also talking about what was going on with his wife's Beulah health problems. After of eight years of marriage Beulah, then later dies at the Seattle hospital from cancer. At that time the wife was married to Bub, who was not excited at all about a blind man whom he had never met was going to stay at his home. Bub and his wife were arguing because he didn't want him to stay over, she says “goddamn it, his wife just died! Don't you understand that? The man's lost his wife!” (95). This showed how much the wife was willing to defend Robert, she cared so much for him that she did not let anyone get in her way. She knew that Robert was feeling hurt toward his wife's death. Also, the wife didn't like it when Bub talked about Robert. Bub would talk about him and made jokes about him as well. The wife always listened to everything Robert had to say in the tapes, it was apart of her life that she didn't want to be
My own high school experience brought me one of my best friends who I hadn’t paid much attention to because she was in a different clique. I wouldn’t have even considered starting a friendship with her if I hadn’t gotten past my prejudiced ways and opened my mind. The story of “Cathedral” provides a very optimistic ending, which wouldn’t have been possible without the narrator’s initial negative traits. The blind man’s likeable character eventually helps the narrator to have a sort of epiphany in which he appears to leave behind his
This is proven through his epiphany during his portrayal of being blind. Although Bub is not physically blind, he has a shortage of observations. This shows that in many ways he is blinder than Robert. Robert is more open minded and willing to experience things, in contrast to Bub, who is narrow minded and has problems opening up his mind throughout the short story. Because the protagonist does not fully try to understand his wife, it makes him look like the blind person ironically though he can visually recognize her, proving that he does not truly know her inside and out.
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.
These audiotapes represent a distinguished type of communication that requires no visual interaction, but an interface that involves understanding and empathy instead, something the narrator has not yet learned. At this point of the story the narrator believes that Robert could not have possibly fulfilled his now deceased wife’s, Beulah’s, aspirations as seen when he states, “I found myself thinking what a pitiful life this woman must have led,” (37). The narrator bases his reason solely on the fact that the man is blind, so how could he have ever interacted or contributed in their relationship. In reality, though, it is the narrator himself, who has not fully satisfied or even begun to fully appreciate his own wife. The audiotapes symbolize this absence of appreciation and reveals to the reader that the narrator has not even considered this “harmless chitchat,” (36) as he describes it, to be of importance to his own marriage. It is not until the end, when he finishes drawing the cathedral that he is capable of understanding what his wife and Robert share. The cathedral is the other major symbol in this story, since it is the pivotal turning point for when the narrator becomes a dynamic character. Without the cathedral the narrator would not have succumbed to his new acceptance of what it means to actually see someone or something. When the narrator says, “I didn’t feel like I was inside anything,” (46) this is the indication of that epiphany coming to him. Moments before, the narrator had just explained to Robert that he did not “believe in it [religion]. In anything,” (45) however, this insightful moment now contradicts that statement, supporting the notion that the narrator has advanced as a character. Furthermore, a cathedral, which is assumed to bring solace and a new light to those in pursuit of one, offered the
The short story, “Cathedral,” by Raymond Carver, is about a blind man who changes the way the narrator views life by giving him some insight on how he sees things. The characters in this short story are constantly developing into better versions of themselves by sharing their insights with one another.
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
The narrator’s prejudice makes him emotionally blind. His inability to see past Robert’s disability stops him from seeing the reality of any relationship or person in the story. And while he admits some things are simply beyond his understanding, he is unaware he is so completely blind to the reality of the world.
From the beginning of his tale, the husband is quite bland on the subject of love. This is present when he tells the part about his wife's first husband, even going as far as to say the man doesn't deserve to be named because "he was the childhood sweetheart, and what more does he want" (348). When he tells of Beulah, Robert's wife, and her tragic death, he shows no compassion in mocking her for marrying a blind man. He even asks if the woman was a "Negro" because of her name. His materialistic views shine through when he feels actually pity for her because she could "never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one" (349). His lack of compassion for the tale of the blind man's marriage tells the reader that maybe the husband himself doesn't believe in love. When he refers to his wife's first husband as "this man who'd first enjoyed her favors" and "shrugs" when he thinks his wife is disappointed in his actions, it informs the reader he may look at relationships, even his own, as more of a business deal than a devotion of love (348, 350). His wry humor is major indication of his sarcastic character. He even makes a crack to his wife about the blind man befo...
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.
The husband's view on the world at the start of the story was a narrow one that was based on his ignorance, which prevented him from gaining understanding. His long held misconceptions, especially about blindness, defined his expectations about things he did not understand. For instance, when the husband found out that Robert was coming to stay, he disliked the idea of someone who was blind, let alone someone who he didn't know, coming to visit and the husband's "idea of blindness came from the movies." He saw the blind people as people who "moved slowly and never laughed." This was not the limit of his ignorance as it was further displayed by his constant referral of Robert as "the blind man" and his assumption of Robert's deceased wife being a black person based solely on the name of Beulah. This assumption display his bigotry is not limited to Robert's blindness and that differences that he did not understan...
Want? -"(P721). By treating everyone generically and denying their importance, the narrator is trying to make himself seem more important in the lives of others. He simply calls his wife's first husband "the officer"(P720) or "the man"(P720). His refusal to even use his wife's name while narrating as well as constantly referring to Robert as the "the blind man"(P720) shows that he has decided to block out the importance of the people around him. He is even less considerate of Roberts wife, whom he refers to as "Beulah, Beulah"(P721). The narrator chooses not to see everyone around him as individuals, but as a whole group. A group he is scared to look at. The narrator's feelings toward Robert are...
The blind man is invited to stay with the Carver’s by Raymond’s wife for he has just been through the death of his own wife and is now alone. Even this being the case, Raymond Carver’s distaste for the blind man is evident from the first paragraph on. “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me.” (506) Carver’s distaste for Robert is blatantly apparent even subsequent to his arrival at their home. It also becomes quite clear that his wife disapproves of his attitude toward Robert and fails to see how he could be so self-centered. “My wife finally took her eyes off the blind man and looked at me. I had the feeling she didn’t like what she saw. I shrugged” (509)
The narrator also feels intimidated by his wife?s relationship with the blind man. When he is telling of her friendship with Robert h...
One example that shows that the husband is "blind" is shown in the beginning of the story before Robert arrives to his home. When the husband and wife talk about Robert, the husband usually refers to him as "This blind man..." (Carver 237). The narrator never uses Robert’s name when referring to him. This shows that the husband does not really see Robert as a person, but just as a blind man who is different because of his disability to physically see. When Robert arrives to the house, the husband does not know what to say to him. The husband asks questions that would normally be unacceptable to ask a blind person about the view from the train. “Which side of the train did you sit on?” (240). The husband knows that Robert cannot see the view, but he asks him rude questions anyway. The husband also thinks to himself, "I didn’t know what to say to that,” (242). This is a clear indication that the narrator does not know how to relate to Robert. Both of these quotations show that the husband does not know what to talk about with Robert becau...
Raymond Carver uses strategic dialogue and point of view to articulate themes in his short stories. Another tactic Carver uses in his writing is analyzing basic human skills such as the ability to define love through intimate relations between characters that reveal deeper meaning. In the short stories “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” and “Cathedral,” he investigates relationships and how the characters develop the true meaning of love. While reading these two short stories the reader is able to comprehend the similarities that draw Carver’s works together. Through these stories the reader is also able to understand his outlook on love and human kinship. Carver uses certain strategies and techniques that allow him to bring a parallel between his different stories, but there are also definite things that set each story apart.