“A Drastic Change in Carver’s Cathedral” “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And being blind bothered me” (Carver 184). These were some of the things the narrator made towards the blind man Robert, when hearing of his future visit to his house. In Carver’s short story “Cathedral”, the author shows a character that develops throughout the story, and this particular cathedral proves to play a big role in the theme of the story. From the very start, you could tell he was not fond of the blind man. It seemed as at the beginning, he was shallow, disconnected and insecure. By the end of the story he became more accepting of a person other than himself and proved to be a changed man, thus supporting the author’s theme that seeing is different from looking. The very first trait that can be noticed about the narrator was his shallowness. He was harshly judgmental of the blind man in quite a few ways. For one, the narrator compares him to blind people in movies, by saying “In the movies, the blind man moved slowly and never laughed” (Carver 184), and he also threw in that they usually had to be accompanied by dogs. He was totally wrong of course, because movies are different from real, and doesn’t mean every blind person is deprived of the capability to operate and move around. Another way he portrays his shallowness is by questioning the blind man’s dead wife name, Beulah. “Was his wife a negro?” (Carver 185). Knowing Robert’s wife name was Beulah, he was quick to judge that it was a name for a colored woman. His wife showed extreme anger, and this just shows the narrator to be a shallow person. One more instance is that the he also felt that Robert’s wife suffered because he could have never seen her. Disconnected would also be a very good way to describe the narrator. It seemed like he didn’t know how to socialize himself with an individual with a disability, or with anyone in general particularly his wife. For majority of the story, when the blind man was in the room him and his wife, he rarely would have a significant part in the wife and Robert’s conversations, and when he would, it would be brief and somewhat incoherent. The only way they seemed to have a little connection is when they were drinking scotch and smoking marijuana. Vividly we see that the narrator displays a lack of insight, self-awareness and understanding people’s thoughts and feelings. After eating dinner, Robert and the narrator’s wife continued to have a conversation. Feeling out of place and left out, the narrator left and turned on the television. His wife gave him an agitated look, and went on to ask the blind man if he had one of his own televisions. The last noticeable trait the narrator seemed to possess at the beginning of the story was insecurity. When his wife was telling him about Robert before he arrived, she talked about how they use to be really close because she helped him read and they exchanged audio tapes. After hearing all of how they used to keep in touch, and the blind man and her becoming attached throughout his wife’s old marriage and divorce, he became suspicious. She would tell Robert everything about her husband, and the blind man would pretty much tell her everything in return. The narrator sensed some sort of attraction between his wife and Robert and reacted insecurely towards this. He also showed jealously and insecurity by how much his wife was conversing and helping the blind man with everything. The narrator was wrong to feel threatened and jealous by this because his wife was honest in telling him Robert was visiting.

This proves how shallow, disconnected and insecure the narrator was for most of the story. However, at the end, he shows to develop compassion for Robert. His wife falls asleep leaving him and Robert alone. After watching a TV show of a cathedral, the blind man and Robert connected and conversed about the difference between a cathedral and a Baptist church. They had their first real conversation there, and Robert even went on to show the narrator how to draw what he thought looked like a cathedral after he failed to describe in words a cathedral. This was a huge step forward as it shows that you should treat others the way you would like to be treated, and also you must not judge someone by their appearance and outside as beauty and true qualities lies beyond the surface.