Cathedral: More Than What It Seems

When looking over “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, I thought that the significance of the story was a rather cliché wisdom similar to you cannot judge a book by its cover. The nameless narrator’s preconceived notions of blind people keep him from, at first, getting to know Robert, his wife’s visiting blind friend. Yet as the story progresses, the narrator builds a connection with the blind man, Robert, which allows him to relate himself to what he previously did not understand.

Before Robert’s arrival, the narrator is already plagued with wild notions of blind people that he learned of from the movies. The narrator admits that “being blind bothered” him because the blind walked slowly and never laughed. Before even meeting Robert, the narrator labels him as the same as all those he has seen in movies. To add to his dislike of blind people, the narrator also develops a jealousy of Robert’s and his wife’s long-term relationship, and the narrator even greatly resents being mentioned in one the correspondence tapes between his wife and Robert. Even after Robert’s arrival, the narrator makes little effort to welcome Robert with conversation for his first thought is to ask Robert how his train ride was. Yet although the narrator’s myopic views of blind people plague the start of the story, as the tale continues, the narrator’s preconceived notions and prejudices of Robert begin to wane.

Soon after Robert’s arrival, the narrator begins to realize that his previous notions of blind people were in fact flawed. At first glance, the narrator is astonished that Robert does not own a cane or wear and dark glasses to cover his eyes, which demonstrates the narrator’s incorrect characterization of the blind. From his new perceptions of Robert and blind people in general, the narrator begins to grow a certain admiration for Robert and how he functions on a daily basis. While eating dinner, the narrator “watched in admiration” as Robert was able to navigate and locate the food on his plate right away. The narrator begins to realize how difficult it must be for Robert, or any blind individual, to find food on their plate, and the narrator realizes that he takes his ability to do everyday chores for granted because for people like Robert, it might not be so easy. Later the narrator also realizes that the blind man is similar to him when Robert stays up and smokes some weed with the narrator. The narrator realizes that blindness is a rather insignificant factor in knowing a person, and the narrator is able to grow more comfortable with Robert. The blind man even goes on to inspire the narrator as they both draw a cathedral. The narrator begins to appreciate the beauty of the cathedral after his eyes are closed, making him embrace “blindness”—what he had feared at the start of the short story.

Despite the qualms the narrator possessed at the start of the story, he realizes that the appearance does not depict one’s true character. The blind mind acted as proof to Robert that you can’t judge what you don’t know. Robert acted as a vessel of inspiration—like when he inspired the narrator’s wife to begin to write poetry—that allowed the narrator to see life in a new perspective. (548)