cathedral

cathedral

“A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to”. In the short story “Cathedral” the author, Raymond Carver’s describes, how the comfort zone of an introverted man can turn into fear and ultimately feel like imprisonment. The narrator was prejudice and a stereotypical person, but through a lesson from a blind man, he finds himself enlightened to the sentiments of the handicapped people. It’s ironic how a blind man open the narrator eyes and enlightened him from his own blindness, a man who has full use of his senses but is strangely limited by his ways of thinking. The narrator, tells a story of how his wife has work for the blind man, how she got the job and read to him. And a video messages that was sent back and forth between two parties. When his wife told him about the man coming to visit them, the narrator was jealous of the blind man and he felt jealous and uncomfortable. He thought blind people, are slow and he pictured them with dark sunglasses, guard dog and a walking stick. These are stereotypes and obviously not are untrue in case of all blind people. When Robert arrived the narrator, felt intimidated by his presence. The narrator has insecurity issues, and he appeared to be depressed and unhappy. The use of “Cathedral” in the story is a metaphor for the spiritual awakening the narrator. The “Cathedral” was used to show the narrator, to see things and life in a different way. The “Cathedral” was everything the blind man has and it also everything the narrator isn’t. Raymond Carver’s writes, “But I had my eyes closed I thought I’d keep them that way for a little longer. I thought it was a something I ought to do”, (130). This shows us that our minds sometimes prevent us from seeing what is really there, and the ability to open our mind is conscious effort that need constant practice. Our mind is the most important factor in the way we view things, and the judgment we make are often based on what our mind...

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