Ignorance And Prejudice In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

In Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral”, Carver uses the main character’s skeptical tone and first person point of view in order to convey the underlying theme that ignorance and prejudice is caused by false assumptions due to stereotypes and lack of knowledge. Additionally, the irony and paradox feeds into the theme that initial prejudgments can be overcome with treating the other with equality. Carver uses a first person point of view allows the readers to go through what the narrator is going through, every thought and action. The narrator’s predetermined judgmental and skeptic tone emphasizes his assumptions about the blind man as well as setting an uncomfortable mood when the blind man and the narrator finally meet.

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When telling anecdotes, the narrator seems to be indifferent, instead giving every last detail as shown with little to no opinion. When he does have an opinion it is usually mocking and is shown through the use of italics or parentheses. For example, when he asked whether the blind man knew which side he was sitting on thinking, “Going to New York, you should sit on the right-hand side of the train, and coming from New York, the left-hand side.” The narrator, throughout the first half of the story, maintains this skeptical and condescending tone that eventually impacts his change in judgment. The shift in tone from skeptical to more of an accepting an open one is apparent after the narrator, his wife, and the blind man have dinner as the narrator states, “ I watched with admiration as he used his knife and fork …. It didn’t seem to bother him to use his fingers once in a while, either.” The narrator also observes the blind man knowing exactly what food he is eating and how to properly eat it. The uptight and ignorant atmosphere is, consequently, lightened and the narrator’s sarcasm has transitioned from mocking to more playful, humorous, and accepting. This symbolizes a communion through a dinner interaction. However, the main shift in tone occurs at its pinnacle when the blind man asks the narrator to illustrate a cathedral. Due the narrator’s incompetence and failure to describe a cathedral, he is lowered from his elevated status. This change of tone implements the theme that the narrator is no better than the blind man despite his vision and