In the story “Cathedral” written by Raymond Craver, it is about a man whose wife has invited an old friend to visit their home. The old friend, Robert, is a blind man. The narrator statement at the very beginning of the story explains his own lack of knowledge on physical blindness, and his disrespect behaviors. Through working together with the blind man, the narrator finally understands the meaning of accepting other people as they are. However, the conversation among the narrator, the wife, and the blind man that make up the whole story is perceived. The blind man dispels many prejudiced expectations that the narrator has. The story creates different expectations from the narrator and draws the reader from a sorrowful feeling toward the …show more content…
The first part is about the background between the narrator and his wife before the blind man come. The first paragraph presents the three main characters and their basic relationships among the narrator, his wife, and her friend who is a "blind man”. The story shows the narrator’s prejudiced expectation toward the blind man. In paragraph 1 “My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing- eye dogs”, it can be seen that the narrator only sees blind people in the movie and he thinks slow moving people are “never laughed” and “seeing eye-dog”. “A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to.” (paragraph 1) also shows that the narrator does not like the blind man in beginning. However, the wife has a good experience with the blind man, and the story shows a different expectation from the wife. The wife was worked for the blind man before and wrote a poem to memorize this unforgettable experience. In paragraph 2, “She never forgot it. She even tried to write a poem about it. She was always trying to write a poem.”, it shows that the wife and the blind man has a good friendship. ““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.”” (paragraph 19) also shows the wife reminds the