‘Cathedral’ Critical Short Response Assignment
Name
Institution
‘Cathedral’ Critical Short Response Assignment
Character
- The narrator of ‘Cathedral’? Why is it significant that the narrator has no name? What does this mean? Why does the visit by the blind man disturb him? How do the initial details in the first part of the story help to establish the conflict in this story?
The narrator is an unnamed man in the story who is not happy about the coming of the visitor who is blind, and that unsettles him. The narrator’s significance lacks name because the author wants the readers to realize the true character of the man as a person who is fighting with himself. The narrator says, ‘And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movies.’ (1). The way the narrator describes the blind man in the quote is belittling. He views Robert as an emotionless walking corpse. He thinks Robert being blind makes him different, unlike other humans. He questions the long friendship of his wife and the blind man. As the narrator waits for the arrival of the blind man, he is faced with many thoughts and questions, some of which have no answers. The narrator describes to the readers that he was a person who did not understand who he was during the period his wife was sending information to the blind man every time. The visit to the blind man disturbs the narrator because he has a bad view of him. In the first part of the story, conflict is established when the narrator is told that a blind would be coming to visit them. The narrator does not like blind people.
Plot
Exposition: How does the story begin? How does this introduce the conflict? Why is it important that the names of the narrator and his wife are unknown and how this does contribute to the major conflict?
The story begins when the wife informs the narrator that her friend, a blind person, was coming over for the night. The narrator is clearly unhappy about the upcoming visit. The narrator says, ‘He called my wife from his in-laws. Arrangements were made. He would come by train, a five-hour trip, and my wife would meet him at the station.’ (1) The narrator says that the coming of the blind man unsettled him and that he was not comfortable. He describes the ordeal as something that he was not looking forward to. That is the point he describes as having seen the blind people in the movies only. The conflict is introduced as the narrator is jealous of his wife’s relationship with this former boss of her from the past. The fact that there are no names for the wife and the narrator is important because the author–wants to use these characters as stereotypes of people. The wife is someone like others, who care for people and do not prejudge them because they are handicapped. The narrator is prejudiced against people who are handicapped and/or are different. He is stereotypical of shallow and means people.
Point of View
- What does the narrator come to see? What does he learn about sight?
In the end, the narrator comes to see that Robert is indeed a good man opposite of what he was portraying him to be. The blind man wants the narrator to close his eyes while the narrator keeps drawing. The narrator is amazed by the skills of Robert, who was blind. The narrator says, ‘He ran his fingers over the paper. He went up and down the sides of the paper. The edges, even the edges. He fingered the corners.’ (13) At this moment, Robert requests the narrator to draw the Cathedral. The drawing of the Cathedral made the narrator see how the blind man thought. He visualizes, seeing the Cathedral itself. The narrator, in the end, learns that being blind in the eyes does not mean actually being less open-minded. He learned that he had bad habits full of hate, insecurity, jealous and belittling blind people, and more or so ignorant.
References
Carver, R. (1981). Cathedral