Looking Vs. Seeing In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

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.

The narrator has perfectly acceptable vision, he can see his wife, and he can see and describe Robert: “this blind man, feature this, he was wearing a full beard! A beard on a blind man! Too much, I say” (181). He

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

He is always focused on his wife, and even though it is not his ideal of a perfect marriage he does seem to love and admire his wife as if it was. He is capable of telling us a lot of details about his wife without ever calling her out or even trying to persuade us to dislike her. His love for her makes it possible for the narrator to get past his dislike of Robert, and allow him to stay in his house. Even after all the dislike he shares with us in the very beginning of the story. He comes into the kitchen to talk to his wife, and tries his best to be a nice guy about the topic of the blind guest which is a much different view from earlier. This persuades us to look at the narrator in his wife's perspective, even though we have knowledge that she doesn't about the narrators anxiety over Robert. Another large detail we have over the wife is that the narrator is jealous of Robert and is just using his blindness as a scapegoat. However, even though this extreme case of jealousy is unhealthy for their relationship, the narrator, in his own way, tells his wife he loves her. When his wife tells him "If you love me... you can do this for me. If you don't love me, okay." he does exactly that and tries to make Robert comfortable (Carver 107).

The narrator is pre-judgemental towards all people who are blind, whether or not he has met them. He believes all blind people are the same as those he has watched in movies. The narrator perception of the blind is that they “moved slowly and never laughed” and when they went out “they were led by seeing eye-dogs” (Carver 104). The movie industry creates a false image of the blind, which leads to the narrator’s assumptions. However, the blind are not all the same, just like how everyone else in the world are not the same. People are designed to be different in their personalities, thoughts, looks and much more. The narrator’s ideas of Robert are based off of false conceptions and this changes his attitude towards Robert. The narrator already has strong feelings towards Robert before meeting him

In the narrative, the author writes the story in first person point of view through an unnamed narrator which enables the reader to visualize, experience, and perceive a deeper insight into his mind. The story commences with the narrator speaking directly to the audience appearing closed-off and narrow-minded. His wife has an old friend named Robert, who happens to be blind, coming to spend the night. Right away, the reader can sense how the narrator comes off as self-absorbed. He`s only concerned about how Robert’s visit will affect him and is inconsiderate about the strong bond Robert and his wife have built over the years. The narrator also lacks self-awareness when he found himself thinking “what a pitiful life this woman must have led.” (Carver 3) The woman being Beulah, Robert`s recently deceased wife, who the narrator belittled as she married a blind man and now she “could never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one.” (Carver 3) Not realizing that with

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

The ending of the “Cathedral” does not exactly show what happens after the events that unfolded. The “Cathedral” doesn’t show what the narrator has accomplished towards the ending, but does show a spark of change within him. As the narrator keeps his eyes closed even after Robert tells him to open them this further explains what the narrator is experiencing. The narrator’s meeting with Robert allowed him to listen for once and develop a sense of compassion for the blind and eliminate his bias. The narrator also loses his sense of jealousy for Robert, as he was jealous of Robert since he was so close to his wife. Since the narrator really didn’t know his wife he developed insecurities within himself and any situation that deals with her that can be seen when the narrator as he just categorizes Robert as another person apart of her past. When he leaves his eyes closed this allows the narrator to truly see as he was “blind” to compassion and what the world was really made of. It allowed him to

When one visualizes a prophet or a messiah, the common image is a man in a pure white robe holding a dove or an old man with a staff and scraggly clothes. However, how often does a man in brown slacks and a sports coat come to mind? After reading Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral,” such an image may certainly appear more often, especially when thinking about the character Robert. In “Cathedral,” Robert the blind man is portrayed as a spiritual guide to the narrator through character and plot development. Robert is portrayed as a spiritual guide through the use of the blind seer motif.

Prejudice is an issue that is present in communities around the world due to diversity in race, religion, sexual orientation, lifestyles and physical disabilities of others as well. However, sometimes it just takes a life changing moment for one to realize that he or she should not discriminate against others just because of their appearance or beliefs. In the story “Cathedral”, author Raymond Carver writes about a man who is prejudging towards his wife’s blind friend, Robert, who will be visiting the couple. At first the narrator, or “Bub” as Robert nicknamed him, does not like the idea of Robert staying there because he is blind. Once Robert arrives, “Bub” does not really make an effort to get along with him; they had dinner together

At this point in Raymond Carver’s Cathedral, the unnamed narrator’s wife keeps going on and on about Robert – her blind friend who she had not seen in a long while – instead of mentioning her husband, which he sees as neglectful. He waits eagerly, and vainly, to hear the topic of himself come up in their conversation, which, of course, it does not. I think that most of us should be able to relate to this, because we all have, eagerly and vainly, waited for ourselves to come up in conversation. Whether it be with a parent, a friend, or even a complete stranger, we all want to talk about ourselves and our accomplishments.

This seems to unsettle the husband, as he notices that his wife has a stronger connection with Robert than they have in their marriage. The husband is blind to his wife’s feelings and needs in their relationship, and this lack of communication between them has affected their marriage. His wife wrote a poem about her experience with the blind man touching her face, and he brushed it off by stating that, “[He] can remember not thinking much about the poem” (33). The blind man however acts as an outlet for the wife to vent about her feelings which forms a close bond between the two. Robert can understand the speaker’s wife in a way that the speaker clearly is not able to. The narrator mentions that he believes Robert’s wife, Beluah, must have led a miserable life because she, “could never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loves one. A woman who could never go on day after day and never receive the smallest compliment from her beloved” (34). He believes that the blind man’s wife must have suffered due to his inability to see her, yet the narrator has never even truly seen his own wife. Robert’s friendship with the speaker’s wife is what his own marriage is lacking due to not being able to recognize that his wife needs an emotional connection with him.

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.

The narrator tells about his wife 's past working for a blind man named Robert ten years ago and speaks of their close friendship. He shares of how Robert wanted to feel her face and neck, an intimate

Desperately longing for more, yet somehow not knowing it, the narrator (“Bub”) takes us through this story as his wife’s old blind companion, Robert, comes to visit. His wife having recently passed away, the narrator’s wife invites him to come visit for an undisclosed amount of time. Problematically, Bub does not fully understand blind people and seems to insinuate that they may not even have a purpose in life. However, as the story progresses, Bub begins to realize Robert can do many of the things he can do, with little more—if any—effort than Bub does them. Taking a look at each character, it is necessary to delve past the superficial and ask certain questions about Bub, his wife, and Robert in order to gain proper clarity and meaning of each person, and ultimately, the story.