Further, 'dreams,' the metaphoric value of which are pretty clear, are something he deals with. He probably isn't self-aware enough to admit his longing to himself, but Robert inspires him to realize that he is lacking for company.

Though generally glib and arrogant, the narrator in this passage reveals his intuition that he's not as happy or fulfilled as he might think. Sometimes I'd wake up from one of them, my heart going crazy.' the narrator of 'Cathedral,' about having Robert keep him company, page 222 When I did go to sleep, I had these dreams. My wife and I hardly ever went to bed at the same time. Every night I smoked dope and stayed up as long as I could before I fell asleep. 'Then I said, 'I'm glad for the company.'Īnd I guess I was. Much of his personality defect is apparent in this quote. But before that, the narrator is disassociated from himself – he sees the world through the TV and movies – and has no interest in seeing how things work in the real world. The epiphany at the end of the story finds the narrator opening himself to new experiences, to a new way of looking at the world. This admission from the narrator illustrates his close-mindedness and unwillingness to experience something new. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to.' the narrator of 'Cathedral', about Robert's impending visit, page 209

Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. My idea of blindness came from the movies. However, after drawing a grand European cathedral for Robert, the narrator undergoes a spiritual reawakening, becoming able to find beauty and meaning in the world by seeing things through Robert’s perspective.'And his being blind bothered me.

His strained relationship with his wife, his meaningless job, and his substance abuse seem related to his inability to find joy or meaning in the world, which becomes clearest when he admits to Robert that he isn’t religious (although it seems like he was raised religious) and notes that he has a hard time in believing in anything. He seems to be fairly dependent on substances like alcohol and marijuana, which he smokes most nights before going to sleep. He admits to Robert that he takes no pleasure in his work, saying that he has been at his job for three years, does not like it, but does not see any other opportunities to earn income. At the beginning of the story, the narrator finds his life banal and somewhat meaningless. He is jealous of her ex-husband from her previous marriage, though that marriage was a miserable experience for her, and he is especially envious of her friendship with a blind man named Robert. Through interior monologue, the narrator shows himself to be cynical and insensitive, especially to the poetry written by his wife.

The protagonist and narrator of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” is a middle-aged unnamed man.

Cathedral short story