Summary Of The Cathedral Narrator

In the beginning of the story the husband seems uncomfortable with having a blind man in his house. For example, he says, “a blind man in my house is not something I look forward to” (185). The husband is uncomfortable with first meeting Robert even though Robert seems fine as we can see in this quote. “the blind man let go of his suitcase and up came his hand. I took it. He squeezed hard, held my hand, and then he let go. I feel like we have already met, he boomed. Likewise, I said. I didn’t know what else to say” (186). The husband is clearly uncomfortable and awkward in the beginning and this leads to some of the mean comments said about Robert.

In Cathedral, the unnamed narrator, husband, defines the character of Robert as an anomaly in which he doesn’t comprehend. “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. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (Carver 1983). The media has been able to lead people like the narrator to develop negative opinions towards those with disabilities creating a type of phobia. After hearing stories about Robert, told by his wife, he could not imagine this blind man having a good life, one worth living. He assumes that Robert’s wife, Beulah, had lived a very pitiful life as well, not having her husband ever knowing what she looked like or what subtle nuances her facial expressions could only show through sight.

In this man’s case, he had simply never met a blind person before; although, he confides, “A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (106). He is ignorant to the reality of living without sight as he has only a vague notion of the concept from movies. Yet, after the narrator’s wife’s blind friend, Robert, suffers the loss of his wife, Robert comes to visit them. The very idea of having this stranger in his house frightens the narrator and creates a schism between him and his wife. Finally, Robert arrives at the house and is treated to a warm welcome from the wife and some awkward common courtesy from her husband. As the night progresses, the wife gets tired and falls asleep leaving the two men alone. The television drones on about cathedrals as they sit in uncomfortable silence together. Soon curiosity gets the better of the narrator and he wonders how great an understanding of the religious monuments Robert could possibly have. After regurgitating the facts previously spouted by the television program, the blind man suggests they draw one. The husband agrees and as the drawing nears completion he’s asked, with his eyes closed, “‘Take a look. What do you think?’” To which the narrator replies, “‘It’s really something’” (115).

Sometimes we have to look beyond what we see on the outside to understand something more deeply. In the short story Cathedral By Raymond Carver, the narrator has an attitude of being selfish, and jealous through the story. The narrator’s wife invites a blind man, Robert, to come stay in their house for a short time while the man visits family members of his own wife who recently passed. The narrator is not enthusiastic because blind people make the narrator uncomfortable, mainly because the narrator has no real experience with the blind. In addition, to his uneasiness with the blind the narrator is uncomfortable with the relationship his wife and the blind man have. The wife and Robert, the blind man, have maintained a close

In the story "Cathedral", by Raymond Carver, the narrator is conflicted with issues of inner-demons that are manifested in a blind man whom he perceives as a danger to his marriage. The narrator in this story is a good example of an anti-hero showing negative characteristics while never actually being a bad guy. This gives the idea that he is very humanistic character. That being said, he is a flawed character who is just trying to please his wife while not giving up what he wants. In the end he realizes that he can have both revealing a very enlighten experience. Over the entire story the narrator is confronted with different moments that gradually alters his perspective and changes him for the better.

By the end of Raymond Carver's "Cathedral," the narrator is a round character because he undergoes development. The story opens with the narrator's unconcern for meeting the blind man, Robert, which is because he was uninvolved in the friendship between the blind man and the narrator's wife. Feeling intimidated, he discloses, "I wasn't enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me" (Carver 1). This emphasizes the narrator's unwillingness to bond with the blind man, which is made visible as the story progresses; moreover, he does not acknowledge their relationship. This is highlighted when he mentions what the name of the blind man's wife was. "Her name was Beulah. Beulah! That's a name for a colored woman. 'Was his wife a Negro?' I asked" (3). He seems disgusted with people. The insensitive narrator's prejudice is evident by him saying, "I've never met, or personally known, anyone who was blind" (5). This statement causes the audience to expect growth in him. The narrator's detachment from the blind man is indicated by his disinterest in cathedrals and tapes; nevertheless, the blind man and the narrator have had dinner, "smoked dope," and drank together,

Carver’s short story “Cathedral” is about a man and a woman who are married. The woman’s blind friend Robert, whose wife just died is coming to stay with them because he plans on visiting his dead wife’s relatives nearby. Robert knew the man’s wife because she worked for him one summer, reading to Robert. The wife and Robert stayed in touch over the years by sending tapes to each other, and letting each other know about what was going on in their lives. When the man hears Robert is coming over he makes idiotic comments about Robert’s wife and felt that Robert would be a burden on them because he is blind. The man and the woman proceed to argue over the situation. The wife tells her husband, “If you had a friend, any friend, and the friend came to visit, I’d make him feel comfortable” (Carver, “Cathedral” 34). The man responds to this by stating, “I don’t have any blind friends” (Carver, “Cathedral” 34). When Robert finally arrives, they converse, drink, and eat together. After, the wife goes upstairs, the man and Robert begin to smoke some weed together. While the wife was sleeping, they start watching TV together and talking. Robert asks the man to explain to him what a cathedral looks like because cathedrals came up on the TV. The man has trouble explaining it and cannot describe to Robert what a cathedral looks like. Then Robert asks the man to draw a cathedral with him. Robert request that the man close his eyes, and they begin to draw. This is where the story ends and it seems that this is when the man became aware of the difficult lives blind people live as he could not explain what a cathedral looked like, and he could not see his drawing.

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

At the beginning of the story the husband is telling of a blind man coming to visit him and his wife. The narrator?s wife had worked for the blind man at one point. Since then they have maintained a strong friendship and keep in touch with tapes. The narrator talks about not looking forward to the blind

“Cathedral” depicts a husband and a wife as they prepare and entertain a friend of the wife. The husband, the narrator, is not excited about the friend coming because he is blind. The blind man and the wife have been friends for longer than the husband has known the wife creating a complex and slightly jealous dynamic between the three characters. For the

The short story Cathedral takes place in the 1990s in a married couple’s house in New York, America. The narrator of the story is the husband. The short story is told as from a first persons point of view. The narrator introduces both his wife and their guest, the blind man. The only information we get about the husband comes

The story follows the narrator and his wife who has invited her old friend to stay at their home because his wife has just passed away. The friend, Robert, is blind and the narrator’s wife worked for him as a reader ten years prior. They remained close and kept in touch by sending audiotapes to one another, recounting what was going on in their lives. Robert’s blindness makes the narrator uncomfortable and he does not look forward to his visit, even though it is quite important to his wife. The three spend a somewhat awkward evening together and the narrator become more comfortable with Robert as the night progresses and as his wife falls asleep. The narrator gains some compassion for Robert and attempts to describe what the cathedral on the

In “cathedral” the narrator shows through perception that he is fully able to see as you read within the story the description of details he shows us. But he tells us that being blind no one can really live a normal life especially when a “women whose husband could never read the expression on her face” (cathedral 31) telling us that a blind man can never make his women happy and have a normal life like any couple would. The narrator makes it obvious that to see is import quality to have but does not care to see further of what’s truly in front of him witch is why you can see in the story that he is selfish and does not know his wife well being. When being in the military moving from friends and family with changes in her life but also him not noticing that his wife was unhappy a life feeling lonely, so she tried to commit suicide “she went in and down with a bottle of gin. “Then

“Cathedral” narrates the story of a blind man (Robert) who recently lost his wife and traveled to visit her relatives in Connecticut. In his trip, the blind man visited the girl who took care of him back in Seattle ten years ago, and who has developed a very special friendship with her ever since. This girl, who took care of him all summer, is now married to a guy named Bub who is not enthusiastic about the visit, but annoyed.

The beginning of the story describes Bubs feeling as a blind person is visiting his home for the first time. This blind man was a good friend of Bubs wife. Bub The blind man is visiting the trite emotions and thoughts going inside Bubs head as a Blind person is visiting his house for the first time. Through this mundane example of a cathedral through The story starts narrative story Cathedral he sheds light on the motif of ignorance through the first person narrator. The narrator starts as being intolerable but towards the end of the story, he gets an eye opening experience, ironically with the assistance of a blind man that makes him