Character Analysis: The Cathedral

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The story “The Cathedral” is written about a married couple who has a blind man name “Robert” stay with them for a few days. The overall meaning of the story is about pre-judgement and overall stereotyping. The husband strongly disliked Robert from the beginning because he was blind. He even expected Robert’s deceased wife to be black because of her name. The wife is ecstatic about the chance to have Robert stay with them. However, the husband is very apprehensive about it. He judges Robert before he even knew anything about him. All that the husband really cared to know about Robert was that he was blind; to the husband it was enough to not want him in the house. From the beginning the story the husband was stereotyping Robert. He expected …show more content…
Colored TV’s had just started coming out because they talked about having both a colored and black and white TV. The verbiage is also very different and dated. For an example the husband mentions how his wife is at the draining board. I would assume it was at the counter in the kitchen by the sink. I have never heard of a draining board until I read the story.
The other thing that told me how dated the story was the use of tapes and how Robert would call the husband Bub. This to me was a term for buddy in the 1970’s. I have noticed it in fairly older movies but nothing in the current time frame. Also how the wife did all of the cooking and stayed home was also a clue that the story was dated around the same time frame. She did work before she got married but didn’t have a job currently. The main work of the story is the beginning of the story where the husband explains the background of the situation. He explains at first how he is not looking forward to Roberts visit simply because of him being blind. He didn’t want to be bothered by Robert’s misfortune. He then explains how his wife used to work for him and about her relationship with him. The entire time you could tell he was very negative about their
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