Cathedral Summary&Questions

       The Cathedral by Raymond Carver is the story about a man and his non pleasant attitude with his wife’s friend to come to visit. The man is blind. Throughout the story, the narrator (man) recounts the times between his wife and the blind man, how they met, his background and their relationship. When the blind man comes over for dinner, there are lots of awkward encounters between the blind man and narrator because of his prejudice views. At the end of the story, the blind man and narrator have an interesting conversation. The blind man makes the narrator realize that he is blind mentally and only sees the surface of things. The blind man is able to see figuratively because he can see beyond a visible aspect but a deeper meaning.

1.    The narrator was not looking forward to the blind man coming over because he was blind. It bothered him. His feelings towards the blind man show that he is prejudice when it comes to different people.

2.    Yes, it is possible for the wife to have “seen” him.  Of course not physically but figuratively because she really knows who he is as a person. The poetic lines used by the wife describe show that she likes that intimate connection with a person in order to develop a personal relationship. When she mentions potential suicide, I think it shows her desire to want to be seen.

3.    I think the wife means that because the blind man is a very close personal friend of hers, she wants the narrator to really make him feel welcome. She does not want him to treat the blind man bad because she would treat one of his friends in the same way she is treating the blind man.

4.    Literally, no but figuratively yes because they were married. When people are married, you can have a deep connection with that person. It seems like with everything that has happened with Belluah and staying with her, their relationship seems to be intimate and deep.

5.    The characters smoke pot more so to the blind man’s benefit to prove that he can do normal things just like Robert and his wife. It reveals that there is a first time for everything that you want to do in life.

6.    A church revealing what the culture thinks about God is that faith and religion was very important back then. Even when they were watching TV, all you saw were Cathedral buildings being built. Religion provided the foundation for everyday life.    

7.    The narrator has a hard time describing the Cathedral because he sees it differently than Robert (blind man). He did not really see anything even though he mentions that the Cathedral is interesting. He looks at it this way because he does not understand the deeper aspect of what the Robert is looking at, just the physical.