Literary Themes, a Look Into the Short Story “Cathedral”

Literary Themes, a Look into the Short Story “Cathedral”
Stanley Jaye Coleman
ENG: 125
Benjamin Daw
August 5, 2013

Literary Themes, a Look into the Short Story “Cathedral”
The short story “Cathedral”, written by Raymond Carver (1981); is a story of   one man’s struggle to understand another man’s handicap, which in this case happens to be a man who’s handicap is being blind. The narrator holds many beliefs of what a blind person should be. These beliefs are a result of watching movies (R. Carver, 1981). Even though the narrator was blind when it came to another man’s affliction, he was able to get to know the blind man; and learned that his beliefs where wrong.
It is this researcher’s belief that the tone for “Cathedral” is an ironic tone, which according to R. Clugston (2010) is “creating a discrepancy or contradiction between what is expected to happen in a story and what actually happens” (sec. 5.3, para. 1); and is set in the first paragraph when the narrator, who is also the protagonist, describes the reason behind the blind man’s visit, “This blind man, an old friend of my wife's, he was on his way to spend the night. His wife had died” (Carver, 1981). In this sentence, this researcher can feel the hostility within the narrator. The use of “this blind man” instead of using the blind man’s name shows the lack of respect that the narrator has for the blind man. “An old friend of my wife’s” implies that this in fact is no friend of the narrators, and he wanted to make that clear from the beginning. Another sentence that set the tone for the short story is when the narrator states “I wasn't enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (Carver, 1981). These sentences within the story leads this researcher to believe that there may be some type of conflict that will take place later in the story. After further reading, this is not what happens at all. The tone seems to change towards the...