Raymond Carver Cathedral Essay

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

Being blind manifest itself in a lot of ways. The most harmful type of this condition may be figurative blindness of one’s own situations and ignorance towards the feelings of others. Within Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral,” the narrator’s emotional and psychological blindness is at once obvious. The narrator faces many issues as well as the turn-around experienced at the culmination of the tale are the main ideas for the theme of this story; and these ideas aid the narrator in eventually develop the character transformation by simply regarding the literal blind man in a positive light.

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.

In Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral”, the short story is told by a character within the story. The first-person point of view gives us a transparent visual of an important time in the narrators’ life. The narrator, who is “un-named” in the beginning of the story, uses blunt, flawless and a particular choice of words. This gives us as the reader a deeper connection with the narrator. The narrator begins this story by taking us through the changes he go through with the uneasy feeling of having a blind-man coming to his house to visit.

Plato’s “Myth of the Cave” and Carver’s Cathedral provide insight into parallel words. The protagonists in each story are trapped in a world of ignorance because each is comfortable in the dark, and fearful of what knowledge a light might bring. They are reluctant to venture into unfamiliar territory. Fortunately the narrator in the Cathedral is forced by circumstances to take a risk. This risk leads him into new world of insight and understanding.

"Cathedral" is a short story ultimately about enlightment, finding something more meaningful and deeper with in one self. Although from an observing point of view nothing more in the story happens then a blind man assisting the narrator in drawing a cathedral. Although as known, the narrator's experience radically differs from what is actually "observed". He is enlightened and opened up to a new world of vision and imagination. This brief experience will have a life long effect on him. The reason for this strong and positive effect is not so much the relationship made between the blind man and the narrator or even the actual events leading up to this experience, but rather it is mostly due to what was drawn by the narrator.

narrator to draw a cathedral for him as the blind man puts his hand over the narrator’s drawing

The short story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver regards a middle-aged man (the unnamed narrator) whose wife invites her blind friend to their house to spend the night. The narrator is displeased with his wife’s friendship with the blind man, and overall fails to understand it. The narrator is portrayed by Carver as an apathetic man who continually fails to form connections with his peers, especially his wife. However, after spending some time with the blind man, the narrator experiences a transformation. In this story, the author helps the reader to understand that there is a much deeper meaning to life than superficial interaction; absent-mindedly going through the motions of life without pausing to connect with our peers causes us to miss out on the beauty of human connection.

Asmita Tamang Caroline Galdi English 200-029 15 March 2024 “Cathedral” Article Review People can’t know exactly how someone else perceives the world, but they can try by showing empathy. In that same sense, “Cathedral” is a short story by Raymond Carver about a man meeting a blind man, and him trying to understand the blind man. Consequently, the article “Raymond Carver, Male, and Female Interventions in ‘Cathedral’” by Samira Sasani discusses male and female narrating styles in the short story. The female narrating style in the article is described as having the least distance between the reader and the story, and readers are engaged with the characters (Sasani 218). In contrast, the male narrating style has the most distance from the reader and the

The story of Cathedral, by Raymond Carver, shows that you do not have to see someone or something in order to appreciate them for who or what they are. It is about a husband, the narrator, and his wife who live in a house. The wife, whose name they do not mention, has a very close friend who is blind. His name is Robert. Robert's wife dies, and comes to their house to spend a couple of days with the narrator and his wife. The narrator, whose name they do not mention as well, is always on edge because he does not really know Robert very well and he does not like blind people, but he is being friendly for his wife's sake. The story comes to an end when Robert and the narrator draw a cathedral together using the narrator's hand and helped by

In "The Compartment," one of Raymond Carver's bleakest stories, a man passes through the French countryside in a train, en route to a rendevous with a son he has not seen for many years. "Now and then," the narrator says of the man, "Meyers saw a farmhouse and its outbuildings, everything surrounded by a wall. He thought this might be a good way to live-in an old house surrounded by a wall" (Cathedral 48). Due to a last minute change of heart, however, Meyers chooses to stay insulated in his "compartment" and, remaining on the train, reneges on his promise to the boy, walling out everything external to his selfish world, paternal obligation included.

Raymond Carver wrote a short story called ‘‘The cathedral’’, it is about a woman who has a long time friend and he is blind. He comes at her house to see her and then realize that she as a husband. At the beginning, the husband has a good vision but he is the one who seems "blind." The husband is speaks and do signs when he is talking to Robert, the blind man, the husband is kind of ‘‘blind’’ because he does not notice and understand what it is for Robert to be blind. What does it mean or how it changes his life to be a person who cannot see anything, to be a blind man. The husband seems very uncomfortable, Robert makes him feel that he is not in the right place. The husband is always

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.

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,

Anyone who has read Raymond Carvers “Cathedral” knows that the narrator is not looking forward or welcoming his guest into his home. Also, he is not being very sympathetic of what this man’s condition that he lives with is, being blind. The Narrator must learn to be more sympathetic in his life, and should learn from this experience, with this older bling man. Raymond Carver uses his narrator non-sympathetic ways effectively throughout the story, developing of the narrator from the beginning to the end, and how the narrator would not be as effective if he showed sympathy throughout the short story. The narrator fails to show sympathy throughout the story to show that the man not judge him for what he is, to show the “Its really something” moment, and to show the problems of the couple underneath what is happening.