Cathedral

Cathedral by Raymond Carver This short story is about growth in the character of a man. The name of this man is not given but his personal views are very evident. In the beginning of this story he radiates a small minded personality but as the story moves forward there is evidence of a true change within him. This transition can be shown through three significant passages from the story. The first important passage is actually the very first passage of the story. There are many key phrases that gives the reader the feeling the narrator is self centered and ignorant. An example of this is when he says “He was no one I knew”. It’s almost like he is saying “why do I need to entertain this man if he has nothing to do with me”. He then goes on to prove how ignorant he is with the statement “And his blindness bothers me. My idea of blindness came from movies.” Only a very small minded person would judge people from what they saw depicted in the movies. As the story moves forward, the narrator and the blind man, named Robert, begin to interact. As they are interacting you can see the narrator’s mindset begin to change towards Robert. Clear evidence of this comes from the passage where they begin to eat dinner. The narrator describes the ease with which Robert moves about his plate. “The blind man had right away located his foods, he knew just where everything was on his plate.” The narrator even says that he admires how Robert is using his knife and fork on the meat. What is happening here is that the narrator is realizing his preconceived notions about the blind community may need to be reevaluated. It is at the very end of the story that the reader gets to see the enlightening of the narrator. This is where he realizes what kind of power the mind really has. He had been assuming that Robert was trapped by his blindness. When the narrator closed his eyes he realized it was the other way around. He was the one that had been trapped by his own mindset and by putting himself in Robert’s shoes he was able to really understand. My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything. “it’s really something.”