Raymond Carter Cathedral

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.

The beginning of the story presents the narrator’s wife working for a blind man one summer by reading, “stuff to him, case studies, reports, that sort of thing” (Carver, 34). She eventually extends an invitation for the blind man, Robert, to stay at their house after Robert’s wife had passed away. The narrator was not too happy about having a stranger stay in his home by stating, “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed” (Carver, 34). The narrator seems very timid about someone he had never met stay at his house who can see purely nothing. This gives off an impression that the narrator doesn’t want to have Robert stay with him because he will be a hassle to keep up with since blind people in the “movies” progress, “slowly and never

It is unclear whether or not the husband’s dislike for the blind man is fueled by jealousy or by ignorance. It is clear that the husband’s idea of what the company of a blind man would be like is very stereotypical because he bases his opinion on what he has seen in the movies, “In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed.” (Carver 473). The husband bases his judgment from movies and decides, “A blind man in my house was not something I was looking forward to.” (Carver 473).

In the beginning, the narrator was reluctant to allow the blind man to come to his house. The narrator’s perception about the blind man comes from the movies he saw, and this preconception influences the narrator’s contempt of the blind man in his house. For instance, the narrator says in the story that, “I was not

In the story, the narrator has set out to search for his true identity, but this idea of why he is blind to the world leads him to become blind in the process. I believe that it is important to focus on the significance of the man’s living situation. The invisible man lives

In this story, the blind man is the one who can truly "see", or who really understands how life can be beautiful, meaningful, and happy, whereas the narrator is the one who is "blind" to those things.  The narrator spends the entire time moaning and groaning about life, his wife, the blind man, and his station in life, and it isn't until the very end, when he closes his eyes and guides the blind man's hands, that he truly sees and feels a profound experience that makes him grateful and happy.  The narrator, a very sarcastic and bitter man, feels, as he closes his eyes to attempt to draw a cathedral for a blind man, that "it was like nothing else in my life up to now."  That's a pretty strong statement for him, considering how negative he's

The story starts with the blind man and the old friend of narrator’s wife whose wife had died. The narrator’s wife helps the blind man and they become good friends. The blind man touches her face and they are connected to each other, they also share their feelings. The narrator’s wife tries to write the story about them too. The narrator describes how the blind man and his wife keep in touch by sending tapes to each other. She told everything to the blind man through tapes. He talks about Robert, the blind man, smoking cigarettes; he thinks that the blind people can’t smoke. The narrator describes how Robert will look without dark glasses. The narrator talks about the cathedrals. The narrator believes that the blind man doesn’t know anything about the cathedrals. Later in the story, the narrator was shocked to see Robert drawing cathedral.

The metaphorical term of blindness does not create a lacking visual vision between one another, but instead it creates a psychological distance between individuals. Considering Robert’s imminent visit, the narrator states, “A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (Carver 95). This comment reveals that the narrator is not happy about meeting Robert, but he does not have a say of not letting the guest come into their house. This comment also suggests narrator is an ignorant person who stereotypes blindness because he does not even refer the guest to his name; he only refers Robert to as the “blind man” throughout the story. The fact that Robert is referred to as the blind man by the narrator suggests that the narrator has

As the author continues to allow the narrator to observe the blind man closely, he notes the irony in which the story is evolving. The narrator and the blind man begin to regard their presence; they discourse about the cathedral that is broadcasted on TV. The author implies the irony as he introduces the situation in which the blind man asked the narrator to describe the cathedral. However, the narrator “stared hard at the shot of the cathedral on the TV” (Carver 11) and concluded that he couldn’t “even begin to describe it” (Carver 11). Realizing the narrator has “a stoic vision, one that is tempered” (Morace 6). Although the narrator is capable of seeing the world around him, he can’t describe in detail what the cathedral looks like. Therefore, without doubt, the narrator is lacking the faith to see beyond his

The narrator’s wife was having a blind male friend, Robert visit, since his wife had died. At this time all the narrator was concerned about was how this visit would affect him. For example the narrator stated, “A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to.” (site) He was uncomfortable with Robert being blind and also being close to his wife. He could not understand their friendship.

The narrator beings the story by telling the readers about his wife’s blind friend that is coming to visit. The narrator isn’t very thrilled about the blind man coming to visit nor is he thrilled that the man is blind. The narrator explains how his wife had met. The narrator’s wife and the blind man became good friends, He explains that his wife and the blind man have kept in touch over the years by sending audio tapes back and forth. The narrator begins making fun of the man for being blind and mentions how awful the blind man’s wife must have felt knowing her husband was never able to know what she looked like. The day comes and the narrator’s wife goes to pick up the blind man who is introduced as Robert. When the narrator’s wife arrives back to the house the narrator is shocked when he sees the blind man. He begins describing what the blind man is wearing and how the blind man doesn’t carry a cane or have a blind walking dog and how the blind man doesn’t wear glasses like he pictured. They sat down to the table and ate dinner, after dinner they sat down in the living room. Robert begins talking to the narrator’s wife about his life the past ten years. The narrator observers and listens to their conversation but doesn’t really join in. Later the story the narrator’s wife falls asleep on the couch. The narrator not really knowing what to talk about with Robert turns the

The protagonist presents a negative role at the beginning of the story. He does not like blind people and seems to be prejudiced against blind people. He is very jealous of Robert because he has a ten- year-long friendship with his wife. The protagonist does not have sympathy on handicap people. He makes jokes about ability of blind people sometime. When Robert comes their home, he tries to embrace Robert by asking which side of the train he sat on because the scenery is better on one side. However, at the end of the story, readers see that the narrator’s perspective on Robert and blindness changes. At the beginning, the narrator thinks that blind people wear black sunglasses, and they are very boring. When he meets with Robert, he realizes that his idea of blind people is very wrong. Even Robert is leading a happier and more confident life than the narrator. The protagonist realizes that handicap is not a barrier for human to lead a happy life. On the other hand, physical handicap is more harmful for our lives then spiritual

As we see throughout the short story, our narrator is slowly realizing that he himself was the blind one, that all of his prior thoughts to blind people were out of ignorance and the lack of

And the narrator was no different, he based most of his perceptions of how Robert would be or what he wouldn’t do solely on stereotypes he had seen or read concerning the blind. One of the stereotypes that the narrator believed in was based on the description of blind individuals. He on finding out that Robert was coming he voices his belief of how Robert should look based on what he had seen in movies. He says “In the movies, the blind man moved slowly and never laughed…they were led by seeing-eye dogs” (33). He even believed that Robert would not be a smoker because he had read that blind people did not smoke because it was assumed that they could not see the smoke that they exhaled” (36).

Disability is an impairment that may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, sensory or some combination of these. The attitude towards disability in the narrative replaces the medical definition of impairment and displays how ignorance is molded through the main character. Since disability in narratives cannot be understood as simple disablement, the blind man serves as a representation. It helps show how societies’ false perceptions and attitudes further cripple and manipulate impairment as described in the text: “And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to (Carver, 1981).” Society’s misleading views about disability are mainly projected by film and literature. The main character, which has no name, only