The Cathedral- Raymond Carver (Effect on Narrator)
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Shanna Cohoon
Mr. Robinson
English 1006r
November 21st, 2012
Robert’s effect on the narrator “The Cathedral” is a short story written in 1963 by Raymond Carver. “The Cathedral” includes three characters: the narrator, the narrator’s wife, and a blind friend of the wife’s, Robert. Robert has an effect on the narrator from the very beginning but the effect changes as the story develops. At the beginning of the story, the narrator is very bitter about his wife’s blind friend. As the story begins to develop the narrator starts to treat Robert, the blind man, with more respect. At the end of the story, the narrator sees Robert in a new light. The blind man helps the narrator see clearly by showing him a different side of life. The story begins with the narrator talking about receiving a visit from an old, blind friend of his wife’s. 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 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 narrator was not enthused about the visit at all; he was dull and bitter about the though of the visit. 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. 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
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something I looked forward to” (Carver). Clearly, the movies that he had seen did not give him a good representation of how blind people really are. The narrator talked briefly about his wife’s ex-husband but quickly changed the subject. 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). From this statement it is
Shanna Cohoon
Mr. Robinson
English 1006r
November 21st, 2012
Robert’s effect on the narrator “The Cathedral” is a short story written in 1963 by Raymond Carver. “The Cathedral” includes three characters: the narrator, the narrator’s wife, and a blind friend of the wife’s, Robert. Robert has an effect on the narrator from the very beginning but the effect changes as the story develops. At the beginning of the story, the narrator is very bitter about his wife’s blind friend. As the story begins to develop the narrator starts to treat Robert, the blind man, with more respect. At the end of the story, the narrator sees Robert in a new light. The blind man helps the narrator see clearly by showing him a different side of life. The story begins with the narrator talking about receiving a visit from an old, blind friend of his wife’s. 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 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 narrator was not enthused about the visit at all; he was dull and bitter about the though of the visit. 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. 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
Cohoon2
something I looked forward to” (Carver). Clearly, the movies that he had seen did not give him a good representation of how blind people really are. The narrator talked briefly about his wife’s ex-husband but quickly changed the subject. 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). From this statement it is
Cited: Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays. Cathedral. 10th ed. New york, London: W.W Norton & Company , 2010. 28-37. Print.