Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” is narrated by a man who is unhappy that his wife is friends with a blind man. He has not ever known any blind people in his life and he has many ill conceived conceptions about them and how they perceive the world. The narrator unfolds the story slowly to show his own lack of perception with regard to his wife and the world around him. He comes to realize that perhaps the man that cannot see with his eyes can “see” reality better than he can.
The narrator makes clear his annoyance with the fact that his wife’s friend is blind. He tells us “…his being blind bothered me” (261). He wonders how a woman could love a blind man and how terrible it must have been to not be able to see his own wife with his eyes before she died or that his dead wife’s
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For the first half of the story we only knew him as the blind man. Likewise, we only know his first husband as the officer. Once he and the blind man come together he starts calling him Robert. It is not long before he warms to Robert. It could be the drinks they shared acting as social lubricant, but the tone of his attitude toward Robert changes for the better. He is impressed by Robert’s ability to navigate through the social occasions of meeting new people and sharing a meal and drinks. He begins to realize that Robert’s blindness is not nearly the handicap that he had imagined.
When the narrator and Robert are watching TV, there is an educational program on about cathedrals. The narrator attempts to describe a cathedral to Robert, but is unable to do so. His perception of the world around him is very shallow and superficial. He sees the surface of things, but he does not see deeply. When Robert asks him to show him a cathedral by drawing together, he finds a deeper connection. When Robert has him close his eyes, the connection goes deeper still and he finally realize that it is he himself that has been