Blind Perception In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

Raymond Carver wrote “Cathedral,” the cathedral represents true sight, the ability to see beyond the surface to the true meaning that lies within. In “Cathedral” we encounter the narrator who thinks of his wife’s friend as nothing but a blind man. For he is a petty, jealous man… he does not care to meet any man whom his wife has connected with in the past. Although he is staying with him and his wife, he will speak to him anyhow. Robert will change the narrator’s way of thinking and seeing towards the end of the story. Being blind in todays society hard. It is not that blind people are different, it is that our society does not accept them as normal people. People in our society feel bad towards them, they feel as if they can’t do anything for them selves, they look at them funny although they can’t see, they think of them as impaired. Blind people are uniquely different but in a good way. The people today lack good attitudes towards the ones who can’t see, making them ignorant for not taking time to see them for who they really are. In this story, it teaches us to not appraise someone without knowing what lies within. The narrator, who is …show more content…
Inconsequently, the narrator asked “was his wife a negro?” (Baym and Levine). He thought she was a colored woman because, Beulah, was a name for a colored woman. Throughout the story we were never told or referred to what the race of Robert, Beulah, the narrator’s wife, or the narrator were. We just automatically assumed that they must have been white, and since Robert, was a friend of the wife he must have been white also. But really this just showed us that the narrator was a blind man, racist for thinking the wife was a African American. It still shows that there was racism was a big part in the time this story was written. There has always been an issue with inequality between the white people and African