The Cathedral by Raymond Carver - Essay Example

The awareness is extreme. This can be estimated from the blind man’s knowledge that in the life of the narrator, there is a requirement for something meaningful. Robert approaches him and helps him learn the humanity both in himself and Robert. With the help of the blind man, the narrator changes his perspective about blindness. Blindness, to him, remains no more a disability. Instead, he visualizes blindness as a sense of enabling, and awareness. When at the end of the story, the narrator feels free of the confinement of sight and self-consciousness; he acknowledges the power of blindness.

The Cathedral also presents a motif. The blind man already sees a Cathedral drawn on the piece of paper and only guides the hand of the narrator, who can not see it despite being equipped with good sight. An in-depth analysis of the way the two discuss cathedrals tells us the way, the motif in the play develops meaning. Robert has been portrayed as a religious fellow and a true believer. On the contrary, the narrator is not as such, a true believer. He is lost and is deprived of a spiritual center. He neither finds interest in work nor maintains a close relationship with his wife. Cathedral makes the narrator identify his anomie. Robert makes him realize that he can maintain a broad vision, creativity, and insight. “There is hope for the narrator at the end as he gains some empathy and . . . bond[s] with Robert over the drawing of a cathedral” (Booth, Hunter, and Mays 164). The narrator realizes that whom he considered blind, is much more insightful than he had ever been. The end is a start of a positive life for the narrator.