The narrator in the beginning is not literally blind but might as well have been. He does not understand what it really is like to be blind like his wife's friend Robert. Robert is a friend who is blind and is coming to meet an old friend (the narrators wife) after the blind man's wife had passed. When the narrator starts the story he opens it with "This blind man, an old friend of my wife’s, he was on his way to spend the night." You can already tell right there that he is not interested in what this man has to offer. He thinks just because the man is blind he will not have what a normal human has to offer. You can tell he does not think of Robert as an importance to his life because he never uses his name until he is right in front of him. …show more content…
He says "She’d told me a little about the blind man’s wife. Her name was Beulah. Beulah! That’s a name for a colored woman. “Was his wife a Negro?” I asked." He has no filter or consideration for the women who just passed away. He thinks that the blind man could not see her and is doubting how he knew he liked her, but an aware person would know that love does not mean only looks but personality and intimacy. Which makes the reader understand that he feels the same way about his wife. He does not sincerely care about his wife's feelings, by just saying that Robert is an old friend of the past. But what he is mistaking this man for is his wife's happiness and savior from killing herself again. Robert was the one who stayed by her side while she spent her days and nights alone, and through the divorce. As the blind man hangs out with them more the wife decides to go get ready for bed. "I wished she’d come back downstairs. I didn’t want to be left alone with a blind man." if you could not tell he was already uncomfortable with the blind man he pretty much just comes out and says it right here. He is very uneasy with the thought of being alone with him, he surfs the channels and impatiently waits for his wife to come back …show more content…
When she throws her head back across the couch she falls asleep immediately. The two sit in silence for a while and Robert says "We haven’t had a chance to talk. Know what I mean? I feel like me and her monopolized the evening." while the narrator responds with: " “That’s all right,” I said. Then I said, “I’m glad for the company.” " the two start to watch a television program about cathedrals. The narrator “Something has occurred to me. Do you have any idea what a cathedral is? What they look like, that is? Do you follow me? If somebody says cathedral to you, do you have any notion what they’re talking about? Do you the difference between that and a Baptist church, say?” He rudely waits for an answer. The blind man repeats all the things that the narrator on the television said and continues to state that he does not know what a cathedral actually looks like. Robert asks the narrator to describe what it looks like. He says that he had to imagine someone was treating his life. As the blind man starts to understand the difficulty the narrator is having he says to grab a pen and
He also never had a blind friend before and was not sure how to entertain him. Even though he felt bad for Robert and his wife dying, he found himself feeling sorry for Robert’s wife Beulah. “And then I found myself thinking what a pitiful life this woman must have led. Imagine a woman who could never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one.” (site)
When the narrator first hears that Robert will stay with him and his wife he becomes agitated. He hears stories of Robert, but always feels jealous of the relationship between Robert and his wife. The narrator describes the news of Roberts visit by saying “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me…
Whether it be by the twenty-seven references to Robert as “the blind man” before the first mention of his name (pages 77-79), the appeals to speculative generalizations and stereotypes regarding the supposedly correct facial hairstyles, eyewear, and non-smoking habits of the blind (pages 80, 81), or even his inquiry into the skin color of Robert’s dead wife (page 79), the narrator is not shy about expressing his shallow obsession with the appearance of things. As he said himself, “…his being blind bothered me,” (page 77). And to his dismay, “this…blind man was coming to sleep in my house” (page 79). Notably, Robert is the only character named, and the significance of this is lies in the narrator’s demeanor towards other characters. He was cautious and possessive over his wife (page 80), defensive over himself and his name (page 78), and dismissive of her ex-husband
Throughout the middle of the story, the narrator is discriminatory towards blind people but suddenly feels the need to make Robert feel comfortable just because it will please his wife. The narrator and his wife were in the kitchen talking, and then the wife says “If you love me, you can do this for me. If you don’t love me, okay. But if you have a friend, any friend, and the friend came to visit, I’d make him feel comfortable” (116). To show that her husband is still prejudice towards blind people, he replies and says “I don’t have any blind friends” (116) which gets his wife upset because Robert is her friend. When the narrator says that he does not have any
Like the narrator blinded by the jealous of Robert’s visit that all he can think about is him staying the night and him and his wife. In the story, he went back and spoke about the poem that his wife wrote about the blind man “she recalled his fingers and the way they had moved around her face. ”(35) That made him more scared to see the
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 asks why Robert’s wife, Beulah, would marry him. The narrator fixated on the fact that Beulah “could never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one” (Carver). This is the point in the story where the narrator is seen showing sympathy in a way towards Robert. While the narrator’s comments seem to come from a negative place, this is where he is beginning to open up to the idea of Robert. In the wording of his comments, the narrator says that he “felt sorry for the blind man”
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.
His further ignorance about the blind are focused in on Robert since he is aware of his upcoming visit. Hearing the marriage stories about Robert from his wife the narrator cannot realize how a woman could love a blind man, "It was beyond my understanding. Hearing this, I felt sorry for the blind man for a little bit. And then I found myself thinking what a pitiful life this women must have led" (508). This ignorance and immature understanding of relationships overshadows his attitude toward Roberts visit, unwanted and condescending. His attitude toward the blind man seems to change though before and furtherly during the connection they make as they draw the cathedral together. Although there is no evidence that the narrator's overall ignorances and prejudices are gone from the experience, it is very clear however that he does come to some sort of revelation and enlightment, "My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn't feel like I was inside anything" (515). Because what the narrator draws is a cathedral it is only assumable that this enlightment that the narrator experiences has to do with values of Christianity, in this case it would be a realization of equality and treating people with love, little is said about the effects this revelation has on him.
The damage to their relationship, however, became clear with the arrival of the blind man. The narrator's head was filled with insecurities and jealousy as his wife and the blind man practically “left [him] out” of all conversation (Carver 218). He was jealous of the connection they maintained despite never seeing each other for many years, how they had “made tapes and mailed them back and forth,” and how she wrote him a poem about when the “blind man touched her nose and lips” (Carver 210). She just knew how to maintain a relationship with someone she values, and that is what the narrator lacks. Seeing her connection with Robert and not with him, the narrator felt isolated between them and his lack of fulfillment in the relationship with his wife became clear.
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 story continues it exposes the many things that the husband fails to realize. For example, the husband neglects to recognize that Robert can feel. Robert commented about the train ride from the city that he’d "nearly forgotten the sensation" (1055). The husband does not understand that what blind people cannot see they can experience by feeling and hearing. The husband does not see what is underneath the skin or what is behind a face. The husband sees people and things at face value; he doesn’t look beneath the surface. In contrast, the blind man "sees" things with his ears, his hands, and his heart. Robert does not let the fact that he is handicapped affect how he perceives people and the things around him. Carver illustrates this when the husband observes, "The blind man has another taste of his drink. He lifted his beard, sniffed it, and let it fall. He leaned forward on the sofa. He positioned his ashtray on the coffee table, then put the lighter to his cigarette. He leaned back on the sofa and crossed his legs at the ankles" (1057) He did this just as anyone could have done. He doesn’t let the fact that he is
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
As soon as the story begins, we are told that the narrator is not happy about the upcoming visit from his wife’s blind friend, Robert. The narrator states “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit,” “[Robert] being blind bothered me”, and “a blind
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