The Role Of The Narrator In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

A cathedral is often where people find comfort and complete tranquility when admiring the beautiful architecture, staring at the art that is unfolded in front of their eyes gives people a sense of being part of sometime bigger than just themselves. Raymond Carver’s narrator in his short story “Cathedral” experiences a similar situation when he develops a relationship with a disabled man. Society has shaped many people to believe that a person with a difference is undesirable, or unable to fit in with the ‘normal’ people. With a blind house guest arriving, the narrator’s ignorance is shown as he makes judgments and assumptions that society shaped for him. Originally acting as a gorgon due to his inability to recognize his dispassion, the man
He recognized that with the beard Robert did not fit the ideal characteristics he had for a blind person. Robert also smoked, unlike what the narrator had believed was true, “that the blind didn’t smoke because, as speculation had it, they couldn’t see the smoke they exhaled” (Carver 925). The apathetic life the man had taken on left him lonely and jealous, smoking marijuana in his living room by himself. When Robert arrives, this is no longer true, since the guest decides to join the narrator for a smoke. His initial dismissal of the blind man changes at this moment, as he states “I’m glad for the company,” and realizes he actually is (Carver 927). This first connection they have when smoking together engenders the epiphany for the narrator. Even though they both have completely different personalities, the act of smoking is the one thing they have in common. When the two men are sitting together and they begin to discuss the cathedral, the mood of the story changes. He ignores his instinct when drawing this, as he is “making this movement it is indicated by the moment of empathy when he, for the first time, betrays an interest in what is in someone else’s head,” (Bullock 348). The narrator blatantly develops a new understanding for blind people, “experiencing an internal change as he realizes the limitations of his view point” (Obaid 10). As the narrator draws the cathedral with his eyes closed, he develops an out of body experience, understanding he is in his home, but not feeling as though he was anywhere. This moment lets him realize how prejudice he was to his house guest, making a significant impact on him as he accepts his blindness and allows himself to see. The vision he develops from this moment is not from the eyes, it is deeper, granting him halycon as he releases his