Catheral by Raymond Carver

“Cathedral” is a very complex short story. Although the actual story only takes up about 5 pages, that’s all Raymond Carver needed to compel an invigorating enlightenment. The narrator of this story is unnamed yet we get to see him grow rapidly in this short story. After meeting Robert, who at one time was his wife’s boss, he begins to see the world differently, and is able to change his views and realize the world isn’t as black and white as he would like it to be. When we meet the narrator he is awaiting Roberts’s arrival with little delight. He constantly speaks to his wife about his little interest in meeting the blind man which his wife finds so captivating. We quickly begin to see the narrator’s jealousy towards Robert; he makes jokes about his blindness, speaks about sightseeing and makes other ridiculous suggestions about what him and Robert should do. We then realize he is only a naive jealous man who dislikes the fact that his wife thinks so highly of him, especially since he is blind and in the narrators eyes has nothing to offer. After meeting Robert the narrator continues to have this wall up, he does speak to him and even treats him well, but the whole time in his head kept wondering what his wife found so interesting. The proof of change for this character is sparked at the very end of the story, when the narrator closes his eyes and draws alongside Robert and realizes this man who is blind has a clearer view on reality then he does.
When we meet the narrator he is speaking to his wife about Roberts wife who had recently passed. He thinks about how sad it must have been for Roberts late wife Beluah to never have been seen by her husband, no one to tell her she was beautiful and no one that could truly see her. As the story progresses we begin to realize it the narrator who never truly saw his wife, he pays very little attention to her and doesn’t really see her for who she is, although he is not blind he cannot pick up on the little things that