2 February 2013 An Analysis of Raymond Carver's Cathedral The narrator of Raymond Carver's Cathedral is, at the beginning of the

story, an ignorant, imperfect person, as shown through his many stereotypical preconceptions, his wife's frustration with him, and his failure to self-actualize, but while he is illustrating the magnificence of a cathedral, with Robert, the narrator sees the world anew; he sees it with open eyes; he reaches sublimity, and all of the unreasonable stereotypes that he had believed in mere moments before are swept away. Surely, Carver purposely paints the main character as a villain so that he can later show that the man has changed for the better. For example, the narrator treats Robert improperly, though blind people are usually pitied, and makes a racist comment about a negro, which serves to incite his wife's wrath (Carver 3). Also, he states that he does not like his work but has been in his current position for three years. These poor qualities of his are obliterated when he attempts to let the blind man see the cathedral, not only because the drawing is something that he thought impossible, but also because the cathedral is such an awe-inspiring edifice, and he is trying to recreate it in another form, a form in which the blind man, who has never seen a cathedral before, can witness its grandeur for the first time (Carver 12). Before the drawing, the narrator thinks of cathedrals as just something to look at, but afterward, he truly feels the majesty of the cathedral (Carver 12). He is affected by it so much that when Robert simply asks for drawing supplies, the narrator realizes the gravity of what's about to happen, and his legs feel as though they have lost all strength. After the illustration is finished, the change in the narrator is evident through his thinking

that he should keep his eyes closed and his transcendence to an exalted state in which he feels as if he isn't inside anything, as if he is limitless. (Carver 13).

Work Cited Source: Carver, Raymond. Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories Random House: Vintage (New York) 1989.