Raymond Carver Cathedral Analysis
Ryan Collins
ENG 102 Section N02
February 10, 2014
An Interpretation of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” tells the story in first person narration, of a man that at first when confronted with the notion of his wife’s blind friend Robert visiting them at their home, is hung up on the fact that he is blind and cannot really relate to that concept. The narrator’s wife became acquainted with Robert prior to her first marriage, which failed due to her then husband’s military career that constantly uprooted her. She had answered an ad Robert had placed in a newspaper seeking someone that would read for him. Prior to moving away Robert made a request that deeply moved her, which was to be able to touch her face with …show more content…
The narrator seems to be a man who is very myopic and frankly quite shallow emotionally. His tone immediately is harsh, referring to his wife’s dear friend initially as “this blind man” who he was bothered by because of his blindness (Carver 473). He states openly that he does not look forward to him visiting, and that all he really knows about blind people is from movies, which is that they move slowly, are unable to laugh, and that on occasion are led by seeing-eye dogs (Carver 473). When he speaks to his wife about Robert’s wife, a woman named Beulah, he makes the statement “was his wife a Negro?” (Carver 475) and wonders curiously how the whole idea of a marriage could even work between them in the first place for many reasons, and he feels sorry for Robert and took pity on Beulah for she could not be seen by her husband and what would it matter if she were to “wear green eye shadow around one eye, a straight pin in her nostril, yellow slacks, and purple shoes.” (Carver 475). The narrator is somewhat of an alcoholic as well it seems from the constant pouring of drinks over the course of the evening and his wife questioning him as to whether he was drunk when he assumed Beulah had to be a black woman (Carver 475). There are so many instances in the story where the narrator just comes off as a narrow-minded jerk, whereas his wife seems to be a
ENG 102 Section N02
February 10, 2014
An Interpretation of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” tells the story in first person narration, of a man that at first when confronted with the notion of his wife’s blind friend Robert visiting them at their home, is hung up on the fact that he is blind and cannot really relate to that concept. The narrator’s wife became acquainted with Robert prior to her first marriage, which failed due to her then husband’s military career that constantly uprooted her. She had answered an ad Robert had placed in a newspaper seeking someone that would read for him. Prior to moving away Robert made a request that deeply moved her, which was to be able to touch her face with …show more content…
The narrator seems to be a man who is very myopic and frankly quite shallow emotionally. His tone immediately is harsh, referring to his wife’s dear friend initially as “this blind man” who he was bothered by because of his blindness (Carver 473). He states openly that he does not look forward to him visiting, and that all he really knows about blind people is from movies, which is that they move slowly, are unable to laugh, and that on occasion are led by seeing-eye dogs (Carver 473). When he speaks to his wife about Robert’s wife, a woman named Beulah, he makes the statement “was his wife a Negro?” (Carver 475) and wonders curiously how the whole idea of a marriage could even work between them in the first place for many reasons, and he feels sorry for Robert and took pity on Beulah for she could not be seen by her husband and what would it matter if she were to “wear green eye shadow around one eye, a straight pin in her nostril, yellow slacks, and purple shoes.” (Carver 475). The narrator is somewhat of an alcoholic as well it seems from the constant pouring of drinks over the course of the evening and his wife questioning him as to whether he was drunk when he assumed Beulah had to be a black woman (Carver 475). There are so many instances in the story where the narrator just comes off as a narrow-minded jerk, whereas his wife seems to be a