The Narrator of Cathedral Essay

Cathedral

In the story Cathedral, I believe the theme would be to Communicationand a Walk a Mile in My Shoes. Everyday people are being judge by how they look, race, gender, where they come from etc. There are also people who feel isolated in todays society and affected by loneliness. In Cathedral things are a lot deeper. Cathedral takes us into the minds of the narrator feeling isolated and the blind man Robert being kind of judged.

The narrator is really an unsympathetic narrator who is quite annoyed at this visit of the blind man Robert. The narrator is a grumpy man. He had judge the blind man without even knowing him and was not looking forward to seeing him. I wasnt enthusiastic about the visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to. He is a little insecure, close-minded, and lacks communication skills even with his wife. He has no connections with other individuals and feels isolated. Robert tries to take the narrator out of his confront zone to discuss things and help him communicate better. He steps out to have a real connection with Robert; the narrator rethinks not only his prejudice towards blind people, but his outlook on communication and personal connection. The narrators put aside his insecurities and actually interact with someone else; he says, It was like nothing else in my life up to now.

Robert is a blind man that takes life as a precious gift. He also is a long-time friend of the narrators wife. Robert has maintained a close relationship with the narrators wife since she worked for him years ago. Since then, they have stayed in touch. It is harder for him to judge people by the way that they looked. But he can appreciate a great friendship without seeing how the narrator wife looks like. Robert works hard to get to know that narrator while he is visiting them. He proves that he is less handicapped. He is not phased by his blindness. He cannot see things but he can feel them. He was looked down upon the husband and his acceptance. The blind man does not want people to walk around blind like him. When the narrator states his feelings about Robert and his long life wife: All this without his having ever seen what the goddamned woman looked like. It was beyond my understanding. Hearing this, I felt sorry for the blind man for a little bit. And then I found myself thinking what a pitiful life this woman must have led. The narrator does not feel fun to his wifes friends because they do not live the type of life he leads, but importantly, because they have disabilities. He does not have the option of seeing what she looks like but he found himself in love with her. His blindness gives him the advantage to appreciate what is around him. The narrator is completely capable of looking at his wife with his eyes but he does not understand, or see his wife like the blind man. The blind man does not want people to walk around like him. The blind man opens the narrator eyes and allows us to walk around in his shoes.

Cathedral is a story that some of us can relate to. The narrator has failed to realize that a blind person has more vision into a person's true character than a person with perfect vision. Although In the beginning the narrator lacked communication and felt isolated but he is in communication with himself and another human beings. Despite of being judge, Robert makes the narrator close his eyes and act as if he was blind; he came to realize you do not have to see to make decisions.