In “Cathedral” Raymond Carver writes about how the ability to understand through senses other than sight can enable a person to obtain a deeper understanding with what they engage in. The narrator who is the husband in the story is visited by his wife’s blind friend. Originally the blind man has come to see the woman his friend who he hasn’t seen in years, however in this story the narrator is the one who benefits most from the presence of the blind man. Although the narrator is her husband the blind man seems to know more about the woman than him, the wife and the blind man have been communicating by sending tapes with recorded messages and poems to each other through mail since before the woman married her now husband, when the husband has
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His perception of blind people comes from images on a screen in his living room. “My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to.” (356).The husband is hasty to judge the situation before he knows all the details. He seems threatened by this man because of the close relationship that the blind man and his wife share.
It’s as if the blind man represents a part of the narrator that he lacks because he is unable to understand his wife as good as the blind man. After reading parts of the text it’s easy to fall into the idea that this guy is kind of an insensitive ass. He’s frequently drinking alcohol and not really doing anything particularly important while his wife busies herself with house work.
At the moment where the blind man and narrator meet they shake hands at the entrance of the house and the blind man says “I feel like we’ve already met,” The narrator is unsure what to say and replies with a more passive answer “Likewise,” (361). The blind man already has a pretty clear idea of the husband because of considering tapes he has heard sent by his wife. However it seems that the
His perception of blind people comes from images on a screen in his living room. “My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to.” (356).The husband is hasty to judge the situation before he knows all the details. He seems threatened by this man because of the close relationship that the blind man and his wife share.
It’s as if the blind man represents a part of the narrator that he lacks because he is unable to understand his wife as good as the blind man. After reading parts of the text it’s easy to fall into the idea that this guy is kind of an insensitive ass. He’s frequently drinking alcohol and not really doing anything particularly important while his wife busies herself with house work.
At the moment where the blind man and narrator meet they shake hands at the entrance of the house and the blind man says “I feel like we’ve already met,” The narrator is unsure what to say and replies with a more passive answer “Likewise,” (361). The blind man already has a pretty clear idea of the husband because of considering tapes he has heard sent by his wife. However it seems that the