The short story “Cathedral,” by Raymond Carter unravels the epiphany of Bub. In the beginning of the story, Bub is seen to be quite ignorant and blunt about Robert, his wife’s blind friend, coming over to visit after Robert’s wife died. He presumes that having a blind man in his house would be bothersome. The middle of the story shows Bub attempting to connect with the blind man, but struggles relentlessly as he fails to describe the physical features of a cathedral to Robert. Although Bub is viewed as a stubborn husband with stereotypical assumptions of the blind man, Bub realizes that Robert is nothing what Bub expects Robert to be based on his assumptions of Robert. Bub’s wife tells Bub the story of how Robert and her met. Robert hired Bub’s wife as his personal reader. She went in …show more content…
He had a full beard, did not use a cane, did not use dark glasses, and smoked cigarettes with no struggle. Carver writes, “I thought I knew that much and that much only about blind people,” (90). In this sentence from the story, Bub notices all the differences of Robert and Bub’s stereotypical beliefs of a blind person. Later in the story, Robert asks Bub to describe a cathedral to him, but fails to do so. Bub then asks Robert to draw a cathedral while Robert’s hand hold on to Bub’s as he draws. Then, Robert asks Bub to close his eyes. At this moment, Bub’s character changes as he draws the cathedral while his eyes are closed. Bub knows fully well that he cannot describe what he sees, but as soon as he starts drawing it, his detailed drawing is better than how he describes it in words. Bub goes through an epiphany and comes to a conclusion that a person can have two working eyes, but you must use your vision wisely. Bub thought he knew all the facts from what he saw, but he failed to perceive and comprehend the true facts about the blind man and the