The Shift in Perception in Cathedral by Raymond Carver
The main character of Cathedral by Raymond Carver is a blind widower who has recently lost his wife. The man's friend, who once worked for him, is the spouse of the narrator. From the beginning to the conclusion, the narration demonstrates conflicting attitudes toward the blind. In the entirety of the narration, the narrator hardly ever treats him in a dominant or essential way. The narrator's perspective of the blind man changes significantly as the tale goes on, and readers are unlikely to miss the gradual rise in the narrator's regard for him. The narrator in Carver's Cathedral develops from being narrow-minded and prejudiced of a blind person to someone who develops empathy and ability to see the value of a person from the inside.
The Initial Disapproval
In the opening stages, the narrator shows subtle disapproval and even regret for the friendship that has stood between the man and his wife. He admits that his blindness is enough to make him not to readily welcome the man into his house over the sorrowful period of mourning. The description of the process through which the friendship was bred is written with a tome underlined with repugnance, at least. There is evident disapproval from the narrator for seemingly petty issues and events that unfolded between the two when the wife used to work for the blind man essentially helping him read and organize his official duties in a social services office. The narrator can particularly find no compassion within him to understand the blind man’s request to his future wife compelling her to allow him to touch parts of his face. The narrator instead states that the blind man “ran his hands over her face” could probably summarize the narrator’s attitude towards him (Carver, 1981).
The Irrational Perception
In addition, the narrator initially possesses a somewhat irrational view and perception on the blind man – one that is motivated by movies. He states that in the movies, the blind “walked slowly and never laughed”. This is hardly a generalized case for all people who are challenged in the manner of their eyesight. Even if it were so, it hardly makes a rational reason for being reluctant to host any blind person; gait and speech patterns seem irrational ways of discrediting a fellow human being.
The Shift in Attitude
What transpired over the years between his wife and her blind friend seems to bother the narrator at the start. Even events that happened when she had been married to yet another man are described with evident a negative attitude. The narrator is clouded in his emotive perception by this attitude as manifest in the manner in which the narration about the consistent communication between the two is set. The narrator cannot understand the emotional essence of the poem written by his wife about the blind man or the value of the tapes exchanged by the two as they kept abreast of each other’s life developments. The lack of emotive perspective is occasioned by the man’s basic prejudice against the blind man. When his wife requests him to make the blind man feel comfortable on his visit to their home, the man retorts that he has never had any blind friend. This response summarizes his initial position of prejudice against the blind man that dominates the initial part of the narration. This may be inferred to May’s emphasis that authors often use sarcasm as well as other humorous approaches to express a character’s true feelings about a situation or action (2015).
The Appreciation of the Blind Man
The shift in perception and attitude is probably shown in the man’s offer to take the blind man bowling on his arrival. Even if the offer is probably provided satirically, it shows that the narrator’s actual perception of the blind man as a family friend could be somewhat different from what is provided as evidence n the initial stages of narrations. The offer suggests that the man might afford a pleasant or average treatment of the blind man on his arrival and during his stay in their home. Compassion is first manifest as the narrator recreates the development of a romance between the blind man and his bereaved wife, Beulah. The narrator seems to appreciate the difficulty that characterized the blind man’s life by stating that he would never understand how the man could love his wife for eight years without having ever set his eyes on her. He quips that Beulah must have been pitiful since she could “never receive the smallest compliment from her beloved” (Carver, 1981).
Appreciating the Blind Man's Abilities
Right then, it is possible to feel that the narrator respects the blind man and especially his ability to live normally despite his loss of eyesight. The tone of this part of the narration shows that the narrator feels that the blind man is a unique and laudable achiever for the sake of this ability. The narrator shows that he is capable of finding compassion towards the blind man. This has probably been disguised in a skillful exposure of apparent prejudice. He exposes ignorance and lack of humanity in questioning the exercise of romance by the blind man but this curiosity is compelled by genuine compassion and touches of concern for the blind man. As the narrator spends significant time with the blind man, his perceptions take a significant shift as he gradually appreciates that the blind man is capable of doing perfectly humane things and even return startling outcomes for a person with his physical condition.
A Change in Friendship
As the blind man’s stay unravels, the narrator starts volunteering to take care of his new friend and they even start calling each other by using pet names. He offers himself for various lessons offered by the blind man and receives each with surprising readiness and excitement. The narrator gradually starts to appreciate the sweetness of the diminutive blind man as they share time together. He is surprised by the manner in which the blind man is capable of rising above his blindness and how he consistently manages to make judgments which required perfect eyesight. At the close of the narration, the man is requested to make a drawing with his eyes closed. When he was done, he did not want to open his eyes and assess the result; he was probably overwhelmed by the feeling of achievement for accomplishing the task with his eyes closed. As noted by Kennedy (2013), the recollection of a narration to derive the meaning or lesson from an action at the end of a narration is a common idea among artists. The narrator states that the experience was “like nothing else in (his) life up to now” (Carver, 1981).
Conclusion
To sum it up, the narrator in Cathedral changes his perception of the blind man and manages to erase his initial prejudice against him. Initially, he shows evident despise for the blind man due to his physical condition. He seems to have relegated his perception to petty motivators such us images used in movies of blind persons. However, this changes when the man encounters the blind man when he spends time at their home. Gradually, the narrator is capable of finding compassion for him and even realizes that life is full of achievement for people with challenges related to eyesight.
References
Carver, R. (1981). Cathedral.
Kennedy, X. J. (2013). Literature: An introduction to fiction, poetry, drama, and writing. Boston: Pearson.
Mays, K. J. (2015). The Norton introduction to literature. WW Norton & Company.
