`Cathedral` by Raymond Carver

A closer look at the story by Raymond Carver `Cathedral ' shows that of a narrow-minded man , put off by the sightlessness of his wife 's former employer , and is made to see the world -- almost literally -- through the handicapped man 's senses . It is a story that speaks volumes in few words

The story is that of a blind leading the blind . This can be seen in the short story where the blind man- Robert- directs the narrator of the short story , in his drawing of a Cathedral . One important lesson

to be learned in this short story is that there is an inbuilt ability in every human being and as such , no man should be discriminated against because of his physical flaw

In the short story , the narrator didn 't not at first like the idea of the blind man paying him and his wife a visit . This can be seen when the narrator said "He was no one I knew . And his being blind bothered me . My idea of blindness came from the movies . In the movies , the blind moved slowly and never laughed . Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs . A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to

Thus , the narrator eventually sees the world literally and reads meaning to it by the actions of the blind man . At the end of the short story the narrator realizes his own frailties as a human being and this can be seen when the narrator said , My eyes were still closed . I was in my house . I knew that . But I didn 't feel like I was inside anything

The story further teaches that no man can be perfect no matter how hard we try . The narrator in the story realizes this and it prompted his philosophical mind to make a powerful statement towards the end of the story . How can a blind man lead another man that has his eyes closed This is a question that the short story raised and answered in few sentences

WORKS CITED

Carver , Raymond . Cathedral . New York : Knopf , 1984

Facknitz , Mark A . R 'The Calm 'A Small , Good Thing ' and 'Cathedral : Raymond Carver and the Rediscovery of Human Worth " Studies in Short Fiction 23 (1986 : 287-96

McCaffery , Larry , and Sinda Gregory "An Interview with Raymond Carver Conversations with Raymond Carver . Ed . Marshall Bruce Gentry and William L . Stull . Jackson : UP of Mississippi , 1990 . 98-116

Meyer , Adam "Now You See Him , Now You Don 't , Now You Do Again : The Evolution of Raymond Carver 's Minimalism " Critique 30 (1989 : 239-51

Shute , Kathleen Westfall "Finding the Words : The Struggle for Salvation in the Fiction of Raymond Carver " The Hollins Critic 24 (1987 : 1-10...