Raymond_Carvers_Catherdral

The narrator in Raymond Carver’s Cathedral develops from being “blind” to “seeing”. He was blind to everyone, but himself and his own perspective and through the help of a blind man he was able to manage to open his eyes and finally “see” life through a whole new perspective, which changed him. From the very beginning of the story, the unnamed narrator came off to me as bitter and just a whiney man. Nothing anyone ever did impressed him. He views things in his life as bland and no fun. When his wife wrote poems he commented “I didn’t think much of that poem” and when his wife attempted suicide he says “But instead of dying, she got sick.” These quotes aren’t very polite, especially to be talking to a spouse. He sees things about himself and doesn’t really see things the way others do. He is a man that is struggling to find a meaningful life, happiness, everything that a good life has to offer. Later on in the story, we see better things coming from him. He spends time with guests, he spends more and more time with Robert, the blind man. He finally has an experience to think outside of his perspective. One of his statements was “It was like nothing else in my life up to now” that really made me think he changed. He was such a hard headed man and that statement really made him sound like a good man.