Character Progression in "Cathedral"

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In Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral” the narrator is faced with living a few days with someone he considers a stranger. This story is a fine example of how characters can and do change as the story progresses. Sometimes these changes occur through actual feelings, and sometimes they can occur through impairments that the character acquires as the story progresses. It is somewhat unclear in this story as to whether the narrator actually comes to like his blind guest, or if he is just drunk, high, and does not realize what exactly he is doing. In the beginning, the narrator does not want this blind guest visiting him and his wife. He does not know what this visit will bring about. His wife was married once before and was divorced. “she told him about her divorce. She and I began going out, and of course she told her blind man about it. She told him everything, or so it seemed to me” (Carver). The narrator shows his concern about the blind man coming to visit several times, for example: “She told him everything, or so it seemed to me. Now this same blind man was coming over to sleep in my house,” (Carver). The narrator is also concerned because, in his opinion, there is a physical attraction between his wife and the blind man. “On her last day in the office, the blind man asked if he could touch her face. She agreed to this. She told me he touched his fingers to every part of her face, her nose—even her neck!” (Carver). What was stopping her from divorcing him for that blind man she had known all those years? In the narrator’s eyes, there is nothing. As the evening progresses, the narrator becomes more and more comfortable around Robert, his blind guest. “I asked him if he wanted another drink, and he said sure. Then I asked if he wanted to smoke some dope with me. I said I’d just rolled a number. I hadn’t, but I planned to do so in about two shakes”
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