Husband And The Blind Man In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

A cathedral is a large church from the Gothic period, but in Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral”, a cathedral represents much more than that. The story of Cathedral is about an unknown man whose wife invites a long-standing friend over to stay, who happens to be blind. The unknown man, who is the narrator, is unhappy about the blind man’s visit for he has prejudices against blind people, as he has never met a blind person before. In the end, he overcomes his prejudices and everyone has a pleasant time. The main characters are the narrator, his wife, and the blind man. In Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral”, the central theme is salvation in human contact and connection, proof of this is shown in an examination of Carver’s life in relation to …show more content…
At the beginning of the story the narrator is very blunt, he uses simple wording, short sentences, and lacks emotion when describing his wife’s past life and the blind man. An example of this is shown here, “His wife had died. So he was visiting the dead wife’s relatives in Connecticut. He called my wife from his in-laws. Arrangements were made” (Carver). The narrator’s tone is short and lacking emotion for the reason that in the beginning he is closed minded and has no zest for life. The narrator also sort of guides the reader through the story in the beginning, which Peterson explains in her article by saying, “Readers progress through a series of epiphanies, effectively conveying the story’s central message on “blindness” and spiritual awakening” (Peterson). He is lonely, despite being married, and is jealous that his wife has such a close friend, but as the story progresses the narrator spends time with the blind man and witnesses that he is not as different as he thought, and the two begin to grow close. As they grow closer the narrator’s tone begin to change and soften. More dialogue is included and the narrator starts to show more emotion, which is shown in this passage when the narrator and the blind man are drawing a picture together, “So we kept on with it. His fingers rode my fingers as my hand went over the paper. It was like nothing else in my life up to now” (Carver). The narrator begins having more emotion as he connects with the blind man and his tone changes to be more enthusiastic. The change is tone reflects the change in the narrator as he reaches his salvation of