Minimalism in Cathedral Essay

Raymond Carver Cathedral

Raymond Carver uses a minimalist style in his 1982 story Cathedral to develop his main character, and take the character through a journey to self realization. The minimalist style helps to create a main character that is a very minimal person. The main character in Cathedral is a very basic man with prejudices against his wifes friend Robert who is blind. The narrator who is the main character does not know how to have deep meaningful relationships. He is simply existing. In this story of one night at the home of the main character with his wife and his wifes fiend the main character comes to a spiritual realization. Through a minimalist style, tone, and diction Carver creates a story of self realization and human connection.

The story is minimal in many aspects. There are only three characters; the narrator or main character, the main characters wife, and the blind man, Robert, who is the friend of the wife. The setting and time line of the story are also very minimal. The story takes place at the home of the narrator and his wife over the period of a night. There is not much plot or many characters to get in the way of the development of the main character throughout the story. The minimal elements help to create a minimal main character. The main character does not do much with his life other than drink, smoke weed, and eat, Every night I smoked dope and stayed up as long as I could before I fell asleep. My wife and I hardly ever went to bed at the same time(222) he is only existing living a lonely minimal life. The main character only has feelings that are skin deep. His wife is much more complex character, and the main character is jealous that his wife can develop relationships with people. The wife and Robert would send tapes to one another and developed a close relationship to one another.

The main characters diction until the last lines of the story is that of a simple unspiritual man. The first line of the story is the main character saying, THIS blind man, an old friend of my wifes (209). By his tone and use of This blind man to describe the friend of his wife one can see that the main character is uncomfortable with a blind person being in his home, and is not very sympathetic to the man, or welcoming the man for the sake of his wife. His derogatory statements toward Robert continue well into the story, when talking about what Robert did, Robert had done a little of everything, it seemed, a regular blind jack-of-all-trades, (218). The main character mocks Robert and his blindness continually. The main character hardly refers to Robert as Robert, instead he calls him the blind man, The blind man was also a ham radio operator(218). The main character does not identify with Robert until the last few lines of the story when he keeps his eyes close while drawing the cathedral. At the very end of the story when Robert and the main character are drawing the cathedral and Roberts hand is on the narrators the diction and the tone change. The narrator for the first time has a deeper thought than he did throughout the rest of the story, I didnt feel like I was inside anything(227). The tone of the story changes at that moment. The tone goes from the main character being sarcastic and emotionally empty to the main character feeling a human connection that he had never had before.

While Robert represents the human connection the main character has never had, the cathedral represents the main characters spirituality. A cathedral is nothing but an empty space that needs filling. The main character is an empty space that needs filling. When the main character tries to describe a cathedral to Robert he is at a loss for words, I stared hard at the shot of the cathedral on the T.V. How could I even begin to describe it?(224) to the main character the cathedrals on T.V. are nothing more than something to look, at they do not represent spirituality or God. When Robert asks the main character if he is religious the main character replies with, I guess I dont believe in it. In anything. Sometimes its hard(225). The drawing of the cathedral by the main character creates a human connection, and for the first time the main character feels a spirituality that he had never had. The main character describes the feeling of having his eyes closed and drawing a cathedral with Roberts hand on his as, It was like nothing else in my life up to now(228. The drawing of the cathedral brings the main character to a new realization and feeling of connection and spirituality.

From a man who barley could even understand his wife and the connections she could make to others to being able to feel life inside himself, the main character in Cathedral develops a human connection for the first time in his life. Without Carvers change in the characters tone, diction, and the symbolism of Robert and the cathedral the main character could have never been developed from a who simply exists to one who actually feels. Carvers minimalist style helps to create a simple setting and plot that does not take attention away from the theme of human connection.