Saboteur

April 22, 2007

Essay 2: The Blind Architect

The Cathedral, by Raymond Carver is a poignant story about a blind man who comes to visit a husband and his wife and how this visit forces the husband to confront his unfounded and stereotypical attitude towards blind people and to gain an understanding of and compassion for the visitor's blindness and to a greater extent, his own "blindness".

The prejudice and intolerance that people exude towards other people, things and attitudes that they do not understand or that make them uncomfortable often make for isolated and bitter individuals living in narrow and constricted worlds. Interestingly, when people make an effort to open their minds and hearts to that which they are unfamiliar with its leads them into a new realm of insight and understanding and essentially expands their world. Using conflict, irony and symbol throughout The Cathedral Carver is able to effectively communicate this theme to his readers.

From the beginning of the story, Carver, the author and narrator uses conflict that exists specifically with himself, his expected visitor and his wife to show his prejudice, narrow-mindedness and unwillingness to see people and situations beyond his comfort level and immediate understanding. In the first paragraph of the story Carver does not even refer to Robert, the anticipated blind visitor by his name but rather disrespectfully calls him only "the blind man". (110) He goes on to demonstrate his great distaste and intolerance for Robert by saying, "He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered meÐ'.....A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to." (110) The conflict between Carver and Robert is further exploited to show Carver's ignorance when he indicates that all he only knows about blind people comes from what he has seen in the movies, "In the movies, the blind move slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs." (110) Carver also uses conflict between him and his wife to show his unwillingness to accept or care about any situation that he is not a part of including his wife's life before meeting him. In referring to her wife's former fiancÐ"©, "But she was in love with the guy, and he was in love with her, etc." (110) His use of the "etc." at the end of the sentence shows his dismissal of his wife's former relationship. The author continues to develop his level of intolerance for the readers by demonstrating further conflicts that exist between him and his wife. At one point he appears to almost taunt his wife about her blind friend, "Maybe I could take him bowling." (112) and when she pleads with him to be hospitable to Robert because she would do the same for him he replies by saying, "I don't have any blind friends." (112) Readers also gain a sense that there is an internal struggle with the author and that he is an isolated and unsociable person when his wife replies to his comment about not having any blind friends, "You don't have any friends." (112) The use of conflict has established for the reader, the level of intolerance and ignorance that exists within Carver.

Symbolism is another literary tool the author uses to communicate the theme of the story. Perhaps the most obvious symbol in the story is the cathedral itself. Although the cathedral is not introduced until near the end of the story it becomes the object that eventually pulls Carver out of his cave of ignorance and intolerance and its symbolism has several meanings. Since a cathedral is a house of worship, a place where all people are supposedly welcome and accepted it represents the insight, understanding and tolerance that Carver shuns. Prior to his transformation Carver says, "The truth is,