FREE ESSAY ON CARVER'S CATHEDRAL

CARVER'S CATHEDRAL

Plato's "Myth of the Cave" and Carver's Cathedral provide insight into parallel words. The
protagonists in each story are trapped in a world of ignorance because each is
comfortable in the dark, and fearful of what knowledge a light might bring. They are
reluctant to venture into unfamiliar territory. Fortunately the narrator in the Cathedral
is forced by circumstances to take a risk. This risk leads him into new world of insight
and understanding.
The narrator in "The Cathedral" begins the story with the issue of hesitation in seeing
the light. The light in this story just like the light in Plato's "Myth of the Cave"
represents reality. The narrator expresses the fear of expressing reality when he said "
I wasn't enthusiastic about his 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 look forward to". (Page 98). The narrator felt that being blind was like
being in a type of prison and the preconceived notion of self-imprisonment was
frightening to him. He felt that blindness was exactly like being a prisoner in Plato's
Cave, a scary world where no light ever penetrated. Unfortunately, the husband is
imprisoned in his own ignorance. His view of blindness had come from Hollywood's
portrayal of blind people. As far as he is concerned, his situation is completely normal.
He knows there are lots of people just like him.
In "The Cathedral" the extent of the husband's ignorance or naivete is extremely
irritating. When his wife tells him the beautiful story of the blind man's romantic
relationship with his wife Beulah, all he could think of is " What a pitiful life this
woman must have led. Imagine a woman who could never see herself as she was seen in the
eyes of her loved one. A woman who could on day after day and never see the smallest
compliment from her beloved. A woman whose husband could never read the expression on her
face, be it misery or something better". (Page 100). But the blind man had sight in the
form of intuitiveness. This sight gave him greater vision than the sighted man.
The blind man had a sense of and source of reality in the truth and strength of the
relationship. This man was unlike the prisoners in the cave. The humans in the cave had
no such reality. No love warmth or human contact. The prisoners in the cave had no
knowledge of those things. The fire and the shadow provided the only reality for them.
This was their source of knowledge and their source of contact with the world. For these
people their "cave life" and their ignorance created a world worse than the blind man's.
Unknown to the prisoners in the cave an elevated causeway crosses through the cave. The
prisoners do not know where this road will lead them. In Carver's "Cathedral", the
narrator did not realize that the blind man was in his "causeway" out of ignorance. He
did not realize that the simple act of his wife inviting the blind guest would lead to
major new discoveries about himself and his ignorance. The narrator's wife has been
exposed to knowledge, which is what Robert represents in this story, for many years. She
was more aware of the world because of her relationship with Robert. This exposure was
instrumental in presenting her husband with a learning opportunity. Her husband was given
the opportunity to see the light. This was territory into which he would have never
ventured on his own. His fears from his own cave prevented such risky behavior. This was
opportunity for him to learn, grow, and develop in a myriad of ways. He would gain in his
relationship with his wife. He would gain new insights about himself, and most of all he
would gain knowledge that would pull him out of his own cave. The narrator saw the blind
man "drink" and 'smoke cigarette down to the nubbin". He saw the blind man "enjoy dope
and whiskey'. These glimpses of reality opened his life as he made discoveries that risk
enhanced his life-risk did not detract from it. 
The prisoners in Plato's Cave do not realize that reality is as near as the causeway out
of the cave. They do not know that they must take risk to gain knowledge. They are
comfortable in the mistaken belief of what reality is because the fire is their only
source of knowledge about the world. In Carver's Cathedral, the narrator is enlightened
by Robert's capabilities "We sat down at the table for dinner. We dug in. We ate
everything there was to eat on the table. We ate like there was no tomorrow. We didn't
talk. We ate. We scarfed. We grazed that table. We were into serious eating. The blind
man had right away located his foods; he knew just where everything was on his plate. I
watched with admiration as he used his knife and fork on the meat. He'd cut two pieces of
meat, fork the meat into his mouth, and then go all out for the scalloped potatoes, the
beans next, and then he'd tear off a hunk of buttered bread and eat that. He'd follow
this up with a big drink of milk. It didn't seem to bother him to use his fingers once in
a while, either'. (Page 102).
Curiously, the final insight for the husband comes when he closes his eyes in order to
imagine and draw the cathedral. "Close your eyes now, the blind man said to me. I did it.
I closed them just like he said. Are they closed? He said. Don't fudge. They are closed,
I said. Keep them that way, he said. He said, don't stop now. Draw. So we kept on with
it. His fingers rode my fingers as my hand went over the paper. It was nothing else in my
life up to now. Then he said, I think that's it. I think you got it, he said. Take a
look. What do you think? But I had my eyes closed. I thought I would keep them that way
for a little longer. I thought it was something I ought to do. Well, he said. Are you
looking? My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But, I didn't feel
like I was inside anything. It's really something I said". (Page 108). By becoming blind
he sees clearly how the blind man's world really is. Being temporarily blind opens his
eyes to the world around him. He can understand the handicap, with understanding comes
compassion, and the compassion has caused him to develop new insight into the world
around him. Interaction with the blind man has allowed him to see, and has removed him
from his own personal cave.