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Lindsay BeardallENGL 2600-003“The blind leading the blind”: An exploration in first person narrativeWriting from the perspective of a participating character can be challenging, yetextremely rewarding, if done well. If this method is used wisely, to further enhance thenarrator, as well as the other characters, it can be the most effective literary device in thestory. In “Cathedral”, Carver effectively uses the narrator’s limited first person,extremely biased point of view to flesh out the three main characters of the story; thenarrator, the narrator’s wife, and the blind man.The narrator’s attitude comes across as brash, sarcastic, close-minded, arrogant,and very biased, through short, clipped, cursory sentences. However, he is a very insecurefella. His insecurity and loneliness is evidenced in many, many ways throughout theentire story. A prime example of this is when he is drawing the cathedral with the blindman. He uses phrases like “I’m not doing so good, am I?”, “the best I can do for you”,“no good at it” (108). The blind man blazes into the narrator’s house, and reminds thenarrator of everything he could be but isn’t, thanks to his insecurity. This is the reason thenarrator is so uncomfortable with the blind man’s disability. “I don’t have any blindfriends,” I said. “You don’t have

any

friends,” she said” (102). The narrator resents the blind man for his easy going, open-minded manner, evidenced in the injection of sarcastic phrases like “pathetic” (102), “spiffy”, “creepy” (103), “very disconcerting”(106), and “who’d want to go to such a wedding in the first place?” (102). Towards theend of the story, the narrator has moved past his resentment toward the blind man, into a

kind of awe. He “watched with admiration” (104) as the blind man navigated his plate.The fact that someone with a disability could get so much out of life made the narrator reflect upon his own life, finding it lacking. He was humbled, and became like a meek student, eager to learn. He readies himself, “moved some things, smoothed the wrinklesfrom the bag, spread it out on the coffee table” (108) and takes direction from the blindman. “I couldn’t stop”, “I kept at it. I’m no artist. But I kept drawing just the same.”(109). Then the biggest changes in the narrator come, seen in his cessation of referencing‘the blind man’, as soon as the narrator’s eyes are closed. They are on equal ground, andthe narrator is trying to understand the blind man’s struggles, “I thought I’d keep themthat way for a little longer. I thought it was something I ought to do.” (109) Eventuallymoment of epiphany comes, and the narrator achieves freedom and understanding fromthis experience, “I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was insideanything.” “It’s really something” (109). The narrator’s outlook on life has changedcompletely, and the evidence is hard-wired into the text, obvious within the shifts innarrative attitude.The narrator’s wife is the bridge between the narrator and the blind man. She hasa close relationship with the blind man, the tapes between them being her “chief means of recreation” (101). Through dialogue and how the narrator categorizes and describes her reactions, we learn that she is sensitive, generous, makes poor decisions when it comes tomarriage, and has had a difficult past (suicide attempt, divorce). We also learn that thenarrator is jealous of the relationship between the blind man and the narrator’s wife.Descriptors towards the blind man say “she was still wearing a smile. Just amazing.”

(102) and she was “beaming” (103), a sentiment not often seen by the narrator, since her attitude towards him is shown in phrases like “I had the feeling she didn’t like what shesaw” (103), “looked at me with irritation. She was heading toward a boil”, “savage look”(105). Their marriage is not ideal “my wife and I hardly ever went to bed at the sametime” (106), and they don’t communicate well. The blind man fulfilled her need for interaction, “she wanted to talk. They talked.” (101), while the narrator just didn’t quiteunderstand her; “she was always trying to write a poem” (100), “I can remember I didn’tthink much of the poem” (101), and she is the least explored of the three characters because of the narrator’s lack of understanding. Yet, the descriptions the narrator gives of her still produce a full, relatable character.Finally, we come to the hero of the story, the blind man. Through the narrator’sdescriptions, we learn that the blind man has a great deal of presence. “His big laugh”(106), “his loud voice” (104), and “boomed” (103) indicate the effect he has on thenarrator. The narrator didn’t know what to expect from the blind man, he only know blind as in the movies, where they “moved slowly and never laughed” and were “led byseeing-eye dogs” (100). The narrator claims that “his being blind bothered me”, and the blind man’s visit was “not something I looked forward to” (100). When the blind manarrives, it is evident that the narrator is so trepidatious of the blind man’s visit because of the close-knit relationship of the blind man and the narrator’s wife. The narrator never uses the blind man’s name, although we know it to be Robert through dialogue from thenarrator’s wife. But the picture that the blind man’s actions and dialogue paints is that of an open-minded, easygoing, genuine individual. He never claims to be anything other

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