How To Create Judgments In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

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Prejudice is a problem in today's society. Whenever a new relationship is formed, a first impression is made. It is hard not to do, but most of the time people make judgments based on that first impression. Raymond Carver explore this issue is his short story, Cathedral. The narrator of the story is an uptight, proud man who is married to a woman who is close friends with a blind man, Robert. The wife decides to invite Robert over for dinner. Before the narrator even meets Robert, he is already making judgements, and imagining his dislike for Robert and how poorly the night will go. However, as the evening unfolds, the narrator realizes the true nature of Robert as he helps the narrator open his eyes to the world. In his short story, Cathedral, Raymond Carver uses characterization to show that often people judge others too soon, …show more content…
As Robert is settling down in the narrator's home, he is slowly realizing that Robert is nothing like he imagined. Robert, the narrator and his wife all sit down to, “make ourselves comfortable, as Robert talked about his travels.”(6) Amazed by what this blind man has done, Roberts twisted judgements are almost immediately blown out of the water. As Robert continued to talk to the narrator's wife, the narrator, “for the most part, just listened.”(6) Keeping quiet, the narrator is almost astonished by Robert. His prejudgment of a bumbling blind fool was quickly proved wrong. For the first time, Robert addresses the narrator and tries to talk with him. After a brief exchange, the narrator learns another surprising fact, that, “the blind man was also a ham radio operator.”(7) Nervous to be talking to him, the narrator feels almost embarrassed by his false prejudgements. Although he never said anything about it, the narrator was pretty sure that Robert somehow knew that he was smashing the narrator’s judgements about blind
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