He was being very inconsiderate to his wife’s friend because the friend was blind.

The swift remarks made the narrator’s wife furious. The narrator replies to all her requests with fast, crude remarks such as: “maybe I could take him bowling” and “was his wife a Negro? ”(Carver). The narrator’s wife makes a big deal about how important it is that her husband, the narrator, must be on his best behavior and treat her guest with respect. He portrays this jealousy through the visitation of the blind man as well. The narrator seems to feel a petty jaundice towards his wife’s ex-husband: “Her officer–why should he have a name? he was the childhood sweetheart, and what more does he want? ” (Carver).įrom this statement it is obvious that the narrator shows jealousy towards other men in his wife’s life. The narrator talked briefly about his wife’s ex-husband but quickly changed the subject. Clearly, the movies that he had seen did not give him a good representation of how blind people really are. A blind man in my house was not Cohoon2 something I looked forward to” (Carver). Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs.

In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. The narrator has unrealistic thoughts about blind people and learned all his knowledge about them from Hollywood movie scenes: “My idea of blindness came from the movies. The narrator was not enthused about the visit at all he was dull and bitter about the though of the visit. The narrator’s wife worked for the blind man a few years back and they kept in touch through tapes that they mailed back and forth. The blind man just lost his wife so he contacted the narrator’s wife because she was one of the only ones he kept in contact with. The story begins with the narrator talking about receiving a visit from an old, blind friend of his wife’s. The blind man helps the narrator see clearly by showing him a different side of life.

At the end of the story, the narrator sees Robert in a new light.

As the story begins to develop the narrator starts to treat Robert, the blind man, with more respect. At the beginning of the story, the narrator is very bitter about his wife’s blind friend. Robert has an effect on the narrator from the very beginning but the effect changes as the story develops. “The Cathedral” includes three characters: the narrator, the narrator’s wife, and a blind friend of the wife’s, Robert. “The Cathedral” is a short story written in 1963 by Raymond Carver. The Cathedral- Raymond Carver (Effect on Narrator) Analysis

Cathedral story by raymond carver