(Disclaimer: It goes to a black screen for a couple minutes when it is over)
Transcript:
“Cathedral” by Raymond Carver is a short story published in 1981. The story is set in a middle-class home in the late 1970s that details the narrator’s encounter with his wife’s previous employer: a blind man named Robert. The reader experiences the incredibly negative thoughts and feelings the narrator feels toward Robert as he coldly welcomes the blind man into his home. The three spend the evening drinking, eating, and sitting around a TV. As the night draws to an end, Robert asks the narrator to describe what a cathedral looks like. In realizing his lack of verbal ability to complete such a task, the men begin to draw one together with their eyes closed and we see the narrator come to a sense of metaphorical “seeing.” This short story critiques the implications of society’s materialistic and narrow-minded perspective by comparing the blind man and the narrator. Despite the blind man’s literal blindness, he “sees” with more wisdom and clarity than the narrator.
The constant references to seeing and looking develop this theme through explicitly using these words and reference to visuals and imagery. For instance, the narrator states early on that “A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (Carver 1). The subtle expression used here continues to shape the narrator’s narrow view of merely looking. The story begins with the background of why the narrator has a distaste for Robert, and it is because of what he has seen of blind people on TV. This recurring symbol of a TV makes many appearances in the story. At first, it is the source of the narrator’s negative idea of what a blind man is. As the story progresses, the three characters spend a lot of time around the TV. A TV is a literal visual medium that the narrator relies on for his information. The narrator and his wife have a color TV. Robert has both a color and black and white TV, he claims to be able to tell a difference. While the narrator could close his eyes and never know the type of TV he is listening to, Robert is shown to almost hear colors. He does not need his eyes to show him the colors of the world, he is equipped with enough knowledge and ability already. This is a demonstration of the overall theme of strictly believing what you see with your eyes. The consequences of these preconceived notions leave the narrator with no room for making his own observations in the world.
Although the story revolves around three main characters, only one of them is given a name. We know the blind man’s name is Robert but only because the narrator’s wife references it several times. The narrator uses labels to classify the other characters in the story. Robert remains as “the blind man” and his wife simply as “my wife.” This detail emphasizes on the idea that the narrator refuses to “see” anyone for more than what he considers them on a surface level. His simplistic way of viewing the people and the world is conveyed in the syntax as well. The short, choppy sentences parallel his refusal to acknowledge the complexity of the world and individuals.
The nameless narrator could be any of us. In fact, the nameless narrator is society in general. Another aspect of the story that continues to develop the idea that the narrator embodies a reflection of society are his actions alluding to gender roles. The narrator expresses a moment of sympathy for the blind man’s past wife because she “could never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one” (Carver 3). There is obvious irony in the narrator feeling bad for Robert’s wife because of how poorly he treats his own wife. The narrator even recounts his wife’s tragic backstory without any sense of care about her jarring past struggles with mental illness and substances. He actively dismisses her wishes to welcome her old friend throughout the evening. Before Robert arrives, the wife gets to the point of having to plead with the narrator, “‘If you love me,’ she said, ‘you can do this for me. If you don’t love me, okay. But if you had a friend, any friend, and the friend came to visit, I’d make him feel comfortable’” (Carver 3). The narrator believes that he makes a better husband than a blind man ever could simply because he can see her, while it only seems like he objectifies her. He feels superior in comparison to Robert, which parallels some of the events going on while this story was written. Carver is speaking for the marginalized people, women among them, who were still fighting for equal rights in the 1970s, around the time this story was written. Americans assign stereotypes to people and feel superior without feeling an obligation to accept them as equals.
Overall, Carver demonstrates through the short story that narrowmindedness creates illusions and a false sense of superiority. Carver is pointing out a societal norm that we have allowed our world to nurture. Though it was written in the late 1970s and early 1980s, we still allow stereotypes to cover our eyes. As we see from this story, it is easy to keep our eyes straight ahead and blindly follow something we saw on TV. What we should be realizing from this story is that we do not have to be the narrator. We should all do our best to respect everyone , especially those that are different from us, and that we should close our eyes and open our minds. The people we find the most different from ourselves can help us to learn the most.
Works Cited
“Cathedral Adapted Short.” Youtube, uploaded by ComAcad, May 26, 2011,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfi7ZdAUQMc&t=640s.
“’Cathedral’ a Raymond Carver adaptation.” Youtube, uploaded by tendrilcreative, April 27,
2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_hPvXa47DA&t=9s.
Carver, Raymond. “Cathedral.” Sakai, ENGL 105I.054.FA22 posted by Paul Blom, 26 July
- Originally published in The Atlantic Monthly, 1981.
Google Images, Creative Commons License.
Hoffman, David. “Great Women’s Rights Movement Footage – 1970s.” Youtube, uploaded by
DavidHoffmanFilmmaker, February 14, 2012,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wJlao3vJNY&t=4s.
Featured Image:
Google Images, Creative Commons License.