A Blind Man In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

Men tend to be possessive and aggressive, especially in the case of their spouses. This reigns especially true for the narrator in Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral.” When the narrator's wife has a male friend stay over, her husband’s true colors begin to show, as he makes predetermined judgements based solely upon jealousy. Robert, a blind man, causes the narrator to shift from judgemental and ignorant to accepting and aware through getting him to see through his eyes. From the moment the narrator hears of Robert’s impending visit, he begins making ignorant judgements about him. Even the first sentence of the story shows the power the narrator seems to need over him. Without naming him, he introduces Robert as, “this blind man” waiting secondly to state that he is “an old friend of [his] wife’s” (455). By first introducing him with a weakness, it seems as though …show more content…
The narrator even admits to his own unfamiliarity in the realm of blind people by saying that his “idea of blindness came from the movies” (456). Movies constantly degrade disabilities, so with no real experience, he has no idea with what reigns true, though he only has stereotypes to abide by. Everything Robert does, and even what he does not do, he is judge by. The narrator even goes as far as judging him for having "too much white in the iris," because it's "creepy" (459). To the narrator Robert is supposed to be completely incapable, and when he discovers he is not, he still manages to turn Robert's success into a sob story. To the narrator Robert's marriage with Beulah must have been "a pitiful life for