The Narrator's Character In Cathedral

The narrator’s character in Cathedral was interesting to me as well. I agree he is an antihero as he is an ordinary guy and initially, a pretty reluctant and disinterested participant in the goings on of the story. He does seem to have an uneasiness about both his wife’s ex-husband and of the relationship his wife and Robert share. Though this might indicate jealousy, I read it more as aversion and insecurity. Although the narrator’s statements are concise in general, when he speaks of the ex-husband, he rushes through to get across the essentials and adds an indicator of his disinterest in thinking about it. He says, “she was in love with the guy, and he was in love with her, etc.“ and “[she] said goodbye to [Robert], married her childhood, …show more content…
He begins as hesitant to the whole thing and just focused on his own feelings about it. Then he softens a bit when he learns about Robert’s wife and considers his wife’s feelings about the visit. From how he has described things up to that point, I thought he was a pretty detached and analytical character. He seemed nervous or uncertain about their relationship, how much Robert knew about him but how little he knew about Robert, Robert’s blindness, and just about having someone new in his house. When Robert arrives, he quickly pours rounds of drinks, probably to help himself through this encounter. This and a good meal seemed to help him relax as time went on. He didn’t really talk too much to Robert at first and when his wife went upstairs, he wished she would come back so that less pressure to entertain would be on him. He resorts to rolling a joint and sharing it with Robert to further loosen them up. By the end of the story, he was illustrating the picture of the cathedral for Robert. His analytical observations of Robert made him start to think outside of himself and consider the man’s perspective as they “watched” TV together. His explanations of what was on TV and the drawing was a sort of redemption for the previously detached and disinterested character, to me. Instead of focusing on his own viewpoint and feelings, he became engrossed in trying to communicate and describe what was going on and what a