Raymond Carver Cathedral Theme

“Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy - in fact, they are almost incompatible; one emotion hardly leaves room for the other,” Robert A. Heinlein says., What most people do not account for is the acknowledgement of the fact that love and jealousy are both there at the same time. Within the short story, “Cathedral”, by Raymond Carver, Carver expresses the theme of how a character who feels an enormous amount of jealousy changes from an encounter throughout the story. The Narrator 's wife invites her old friend, a blind man, by the name of Robert to her home. This triggers an inner conflict within the Narrator. He feels

Overtime, the Narrator begins to slowly acknowledge the blind man and understand how to interact with him. When the blind man asked the Narrator to describe the cathedral shown on television, he said, “To begin with, they’re very tall...They reach way up. Up and up. Toward the sky. They’re so big, some of them, they have to have these supports...These supports are called buttresses...remind of viaducts, for some reason...you don’t know viaducts, either? Sometimes the cathedrals have devils and such carved into the front. Sometimes lords and ladies. Don’t ask me why this is” (Carver, 11). After attempting to describe the cathedral, he realized he could not. He said,“but it looks like that’s the best I can do for you. I’m just no good at it” (Carver, 12). Later on, when Robert asks the Narrator to bring him a pen and paper and they drew the cathedral, the Narrator realized something very important. While, the Narrator can see with his eyes, the blind man can see the world through his mind. Richard said, “Go ahead, bub, draw...Draw. You’ll see. I’ll follow along with you. It’ll be okay. Just begin now like I’m telling you. You’ll see. Draw” (Carver, 12). When the Narrator tried to explain a cathedral, he could not, but with the blind man leading him, he could and when Robert told him to open his eyes to see what he drew, the Narrator decides to trust Robert in the end. The Narrator thought, “My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything” (Carver, 13). The Narrator felt as if he were a blind man too and he could see just like them. His trust and understanding of Robert grew in that