The Ability To Change In Raymond Carver's The Cathedral

Through this he gains a false impression. He says the movies describe the blind as “The blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing eye dogs” (1). This is a

A visual media example, that falsely portrays blind people and negatively influences Bub’s perception of blind people;"[i]n the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed” and “[s]ometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs"(Carver 108). The narrator sees blindness as a handicap, but he discovers that Robert lacks sunglasses, and he receives help from people instead of dogs (Carver 111-113). In addition, Bub’s receives negative influence from print media as he states, “I remembered having read somewhere that the blind didn't smoke” (Carver 114). The narrator learns that Robert lives like everyone else because he worked in a “county social services department in Seattle,” his wife recently passed away, he wears a beard, dresses well, eats normally and smokes” (Carver 108, 111-114). Although Bub receives his knowledge from audio and print media his negative opinions of blind people come from false portrayals in media, however Bub and Robert each learn a valuable lesson through Carver’s use of art media

The narrator’s whole idea of blindness came from the movies. He said blind people moved slow, were mostly led by dogs, were always serious and never laughed. But that just shows how ignorant he is against the blind. Throughout the whole story the narrator was the character that I didn 't like, in fact I thought he was the antagonist. He was always bringing in all the bad energy and he was an asshole. While the wife was more comforting for Robert and Robert was more laid back and going with the flow. They were all having a couple drinks and some good conversations would arise but through the end of the story, when the narrator’s wife falls asleep, the narrator and Robert start having conversations. They smoke together, watch tv and even draw a cathedral. When this happens, that’s when the narrator’s whole view changes. But until then, he still remains being blunt, insensitive, ignorant to the blind or people’s feelings.

The narrator’s wife has a friend who they have known for many years and he comes to town to visit her. The wife and her friend, Robert, has kept in touch and have talked about their lives and she could really open up to Robert. She tells her husband that he is a blind man and he tells his wife that he has never met a blind person before and that it will make him feel uncomfortable. The narrator can see with his eyes, but has a hard time with understanding people’s thoughts and feelings deep down.

In addition the narrator has a few prejudice thoughts about the blind man prior to his arrival, but they appear to change as the story evolves. The narrator is not afraid in voicing his

The theme of this story plays a strong role of physical and psychological blindness. The narrator has sight and is not blind. But it seems as if the narrator is blinded by his own personality. He is too quick to judge a blind man who he has not even met yet but judge a blind man because of what he saw on television. Bub, the narrator says, “"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 dogs-eye dogs." (Carver 299). It is also seen that Robert always refers the man as “the blind man” rather than Robert. The narrator sees him not as human-like because of his disability. The author lets the audience know that even though a man may

Aided by the assistance of the aforementioned substances, the husband questions Robert, asking if he knew what a cathedral was. Robert, the blind man, regurgitates some information he had learned from the program before reverting the question back to the husband. The husband, struggling to answer, is struck by the sobering epiphany that the two men are not so different after all. Carver’s deliberate implementation of the first-person narrative in “Cathedral” invites the reader to witness the husband’s evolving perception. Initially, the narrator, being the husband, has a relatively self-centered and judgmental character.

Once Robert arrives some, of the narrators assumptions about blind people are broke down immediately like when he mentions "He didn't use a cane and he didn't

The narrator’s naivete leaves him amazed by Robert, who does things which the narrator would view as atypical of the blind. This reinforces the idea that the narrator is blind to the reality of the world.

The story opens with the narrator giving a background of his wife and Robert. Immediately, it is easy for the audience to form a negative opinion about the narrator. Within the first paragraph of the story he says, “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (Carver 33). This exemplifies his pre-formed opinion about Robert even though he hardly knows anything about him. He clearly is uncomfortable with the fact that Robert is blind, mainly based on his lack of exposure to people with disabilities. The narrator is very narrow-minded for most of this story, making it easy to initially dislike him.

At the beginning of the story, the narrator introduces conflict by stating his dislike for blind people. He sees the blind as dull, helpless beings. Before Robert arrives, the narrator applies these stereotypes to him. While expressing his dislike, the narrator confesses that “[His] idea of blindness came from the movies.” (34) This confession not only shows the narrator’s ignorance, but also the impact of television on him. His ignorance leaves ample room for character development.

Immediately, the narrator reveals his narrow mindedness when faced with Robert, the blind man. Preconceived judgemental comments are mentioned moments after the initial meeting, as the narrator refuses to refer to the man by his name, instead only acknowledging him as “the blind man”. He recalls a moment when the blind man touched his wife’s face, not fully understanding the importance of such action, only classifying it as unusually strange. The narrator then reveals that he has “never met or personally known, anyone who was blind”, offering an insight into an explanation for his behaviour.

In “Cathedral”, although the unnamed narrator deems the blind man, Robert, inferior, his critical, inner monologue reveals that he’s truly insecure while the blind man, who never judges, appears entirely self-assured, thereby suggesting that Raymond Carver finds true power in acceptance. In fact, Carver exposes that the narrator’s superiority complex only masks the narrator’s underlying insecurity by strategically setting the story before zoning in on both the husband’s diction, as well as his selection of detail; Therefore, the author documents the narrator’s paranoia, envy, and utter alarm about his crumbling marriage. Beginning to unveil the unassured narrator, Carver establishes reason through the story’s setting for the character to suspect that his wife will leave him. For instance, the time period, roughly during the 1970s, alone explains the narrator anticipating that his wife will divorce him because during this decade, known as the divorce revolution, wive exercised independence. Along with this, the narrator already notices his wife distancing

The speaker puts Robert in a category that stops him from seeing him as an individual, yet receives an eye-opening experience through the blind man’s knowledge and

Furthermore, the title of the short story has symbolic representation to the transformation the narrator partakes as the story ends. Specifically, when the narrator begins to explain the cathedral on the TV and is unable to describe it with detail to Robert, shows how blind he is even though he is able to look at the things show in the program. In the short story, Robert suggests to the narrator to work together on drawing a cathedral to better illustrate it. As both hold on to the pen and trace the cathedral unto the piece of paper bag, Robert is able to visualize it in his mind; the narrator, on the other hand, gets to a point in his life where he realizes that he is now able to see, rather than just look at something, and is able to understand its meaning, as he states “it was like nothing else in my life up to now…my eyes were still closed.” Here, the narrator recognizes that even though his eyes were closed, as if he was blind, he is able to tell how immensely and detailed cathedrals are.