Reality In The Narrator's Poem, Cathedral
In “Cathedral” the author focuses on the narrator’s reality. In the beginning the narrator based his vision of Robert the blind man, on images he has seen in movies. The narrator uses his wife’s descriptions, the tapes, and his vision of Robert to get to know Robert.
The narrator’s wife met Robert one summer in Seattle when she needed a job. On her last day of work the blind man touched her face. She tried to write a poem about it because this was something that was really important to her. She tells the narrator about Robert’s wife Beulah. When she let the narrator know about her pieces of the story begin to fall into place. However, the narrator does not like that Robert could not see Beulah. He was upset that she died and could’ve never
been complimented by Robert.
The narrator’s wife and Robert started sending tapes to each other when she was on an Air Force base in Alabama. She told him all about her life and her marriage to the officer. She sent him the tape and he would send her one back. This went on for years. She tried to commit suicide but failed, and she put it on tape and sent it to Robert. She told him about the divorce and when she and the narrator began going out. When the narrator first listened to the tape it seemed to make him uncomfortable.
The narrator states in the beginning that he is not excited about Roberts visit. He thinks blind people are sad and depressing. He gets this vision of blind people from what he has seen in movies. In the movies the “blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes led by seeing eye dogs. Robert being blind bothered him. A blind man in his house was not something he looked forward to. The narrator even read somewhere that blind people didn’t smoke because they cannot see the smoke they exhaled. He was shocked that Robert smoked like a chimney. Then when they are watching tv Robert asks to describe to him a cathedral. The narrator begins, but is not doing a great job. Robert tells him to get some heavy paper and a pen and they will draw one together. The narrator closes his eyes and continues drawing. He felt like the drawing was really something.
At the end of the story when they are drawing I think that the narrator realizes that if you can’t see you can still imagine the beauty of things. The more the narrator took the time to get to know Robert he realized he was wrong about his interpretations about blind people.
The narrator’s wife met Robert one summer in Seattle when she needed a job. On her last day of work the blind man touched her face. She tried to write a poem about it because this was something that was really important to her. She tells the narrator about Robert’s wife Beulah. When she let the narrator know about her pieces of the story begin to fall into place. However, the narrator does not like that Robert could not see Beulah. He was upset that she died and could’ve never
been complimented by Robert.
The narrator’s wife and Robert started sending tapes to each other when she was on an Air Force base in Alabama. She told him all about her life and her marriage to the officer. She sent him the tape and he would send her one back. This went on for years. She tried to commit suicide but failed, and she put it on tape and sent it to Robert. She told him about the divorce and when she and the narrator began going out. When the narrator first listened to the tape it seemed to make him uncomfortable.
The narrator states in the beginning that he is not excited about Roberts visit. He thinks blind people are sad and depressing. He gets this vision of blind people from what he has seen in movies. In the movies the “blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes led by seeing eye dogs. Robert being blind bothered him. A blind man in his house was not something he looked forward to. The narrator even read somewhere that blind people didn’t smoke because they cannot see the smoke they exhaled. He was shocked that Robert smoked like a chimney. Then when they are watching tv Robert asks to describe to him a cathedral. The narrator begins, but is not doing a great job. Robert tells him to get some heavy paper and a pen and they will draw one together. The narrator closes his eyes and continues drawing. He felt like the drawing was really something.
At the end of the story when they are drawing I think that the narrator realizes that if you can’t see you can still imagine the beauty of things. The more the narrator took the time to get to know Robert he realized he was wrong about his interpretations about blind people.