The “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, begins with a seemingly “normal” husband is about to come to grips with an old “blind” friend of his wife. As the story progress the reader finds out just the opposite.
Throughout the story the reader sees, by his words and actions, that the husband does not “see” or understands what Robert’s (the friend) blindness means, He cannot understand how changed or did not change him as a human. In the beginning of the story Robert seemingly makes the husband feel very uncomfortable, he does not know what to say or how to act around a blind person. “His being blind bothered me” is said by the husband early on. The husband also refers to Robert as “this blind man.” He never uses the name Robert nor does he give him any human characteristics. These actions show that the husband sees Robert not as a person but as a handicap person.
It gets no
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The first time the reader sees this evolution is at dinner. While eating, the husband "watched with admiration as (Robert) used his knife and fork on the meat." Here the husband sees that Robert can eat just like everyone else. Another example of the husband’s turnabout is after dinner when the three decided to smoke marijuana. The husband stared in amazement when it was Robert’s turn, he "held the smoke, and then let it go. It was like he’d been doing it since he was nine years old.” Finally the wife goes upstairs, Robert turns on the television and a cathedral shows up on the screen. The husband "rises with the spirit of the blind man as, with eyes closed and pen on paper, he leads the blind man’s hand over what he imagines the contours of a cathedral would be.” When they are done Robert wants the husband to look, but he has his eyes closed because he "thought it was something [he] ought to do." It was at this time, the husband “sees” Robert as a human with the same feeling, ideas and emotions as