'The Rich Brother' By Tobias Wolf

The Rich Brother and Cathedral Thesis Paper
Danny Miller
LCS 121 Section H 9/28/14
“The Rich Brother” by Tobias Wolf, tells a story of two brothers with very different lifestyles and perspectives on the world. The main character Pete is a very successful real estate agent in Santa Cruz who tends to get caught up in the materialistic things in life. He always wants his image to appear superior to others, from the house, to the car, to the clothes and he seems to look down upon on those who are not as successful as him. His brother Donald is the exact opposite of Pete and is seen as a loser in his eyes. Donald has no money to his name and drifts from place to place. “The Cathedral” by Raymond Carver tells the story of the interactions between
Pete places a high emphasis on success, which to him is strictly defined by the amount of money a person has and where they stand on the social ladder. Pete’s ultimate ambition is to fit in following the example of his parents, “They managed to be decent people without making fools of themselves” (Wolff 654). His view of a decent person was someone who was well off financially as evidence by his statement to Donald “Grow up…Get a Mercedes” (Wolff 656). He views Donald as a failure because he lives a different lifestyle and is not nearly as “successful,” using Pete’s definition of the word. Similarly, the husband is very judgmental and seems to have tunnel vision based on his pre-conceived assumptions. These assumptions are mainly stereotypical based on outward appearance and in the case of the blind man, physical disability. These stereotypes are shown in his judgments towards the blind man’s marital relationship. He automatically assumes that the blind man’s wife was miserable saying, “It was beyond my understanding… And then I found myself thinking what a pitiful life this woman must have led. Imagine a woman who could never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one” (Carver 108). He automatically assumes because the blind man can’t see, that he and his wife would have a poor relationship. He believes that blindness prevents the man from being capable of
When describing the blind man’s relationship and interactions with his wife he says “All this without seeing what the god-damned woman looked like” Carver 108). This shows the narrator’s arrogance. He assumes that because the man couldn’t see what his wife looked like they couldn’t have a normal relationship. When speaking with the blind man the narrator continues to judge him based strictly off of appearance. He says that he had wished the man had dark glasses on because his eyes were “creepy”. Later when the Narrators wife went up to bed he was left alone with the blind man. He said “I wished she’d come back downstairs. I didn’t want to be left alone with a blind man” (Carver 111). The blind man is like any other person in this world except for the fact that he can’t see. This goes to show that the narrator doesn’t see people for who they actually are, he is judging him strictly off of a physical disability. The narrator and the blind man eventually decide to smoke a joint and watch T.V. The narrator was describing what was going on in the show and a cathedral appeared. He realized that the blind man probably had no idea what a cathedral looked like so he tried describing it to him. When he realized that he could not describe it they decide to draw it together while the blind man put his hand on top of the narrators. The blind man told him to close his eyes while