Cathedral
A short story by Raymond Carver
This short story opens with an irritated and
sometimes hostile narrator whose wife has invited a blind friend to spend the
night. The narrator tells us immediately that his visitor's blindness bothers him
and that he is not looking forward to having a blind man in his house. The
vehemence of his prejudice is surprising. His initial anger and anxiety seem
way out of proportion to the situation, as if this blind man were threatening
him somehow.
Gradually, as the evening wears on, the
narrator begins to relax with the blind man, though he still challenges him in
all sorts of ways, such as drinking, smoking cigarettes and dope, and turning
on the TV (which, of course, the blind man cannot see). A documentary about
cathedrals is showing. The narrator tries to describe a cathedral in words.
When that doesn't succeed, the blind man holds the narrator's hand as he draws
a cathedral on a paper bag. The experience of this successful communication
transforms the narrator.
As the blind man says, "Terrific. You're
doing fine. Never thought anything like this could happen in your
lifetime?" The narrator closes his eyes and draws blind, saying, "So
we kept on with it. His fingers rode my fingers as my hand went over the paper.
It was like nothing in my life up to now." The ending leaves us pondering
about how much more the narrator is learning about himself and about human
communication than the blind man is learning about cathedrals.
* This summary was written
Carol Donley and appears in the Literature,
Arts & Medicine Database, an annotated bibliography of prose, poetry,
film, video and art which was developed by the New York University School of
Medicine
Source:
Carver, Raymond. Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories Random
House: Vintage (