Blindness in Raymond Carver's "Cathedral"

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Matthew Aiello Introduction to Literature 4.17.12 Vision: Overrated An older gentleman once told me, you were too blind to see… and continued on in his matter of fact speech. Turns out, it’s a pretty common saying that dramatic people tend to use more often than others. It’s also a saying that contains blatant irony in order to prompt the receiving individual to ultimately think that other person knows what he or she is actually talking about. Regardless, it does contain a point and is merely a different way to tell someone that they must open their mind in order to see the world around them. Whether it is family, cultural, or business issues, having your eyes open (in a broader, deep spiritual sense) will create more opportunity to understand and respect what encircles you daily. Throughout the short story Cathedral by Raymond Carver, we are constantly battered with the topic of blindness and what it actually may mean to be blind. I’ve rationalized that there are a few different types of blindness seen in the world we live in and also in the story Cathedral. Considering the context of a random conversation, if my close friend were to tell me that John Jefferson (for the sake of having a subject) was blind, I would have more than one option coming up in my head of what my friend was actually trying to convey. Yes, possibly John is blind and wears those little ZZ Top black glasses or goes free and has a David Paterson squint working for him. However, I would also bet that John Jefferson is not blind but is simply ignorant, as was the narrator in Cathedral. His ignorance was probably not that of hatred or mal content, but simply by his lack of experience with being around a certain subject that is out of the norm for him. We’re constantly seeing the narrator struggle with his uncertain-like attitude. Luckily, Robert, the older blind man in the

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