Cathedral

People’s most influential learning and growth experiences come from the unexpected and unwanted events in life. Nowhere is this more evident than in the story “Cathedral.” The narrator is forced to host his wife’s long time friend: a blind man. Through this unwanted visit, the blind man Robert develops a relationship with the narrator and helps him realize that life is about continuous learning often from the most unexpected of places and people.
The character development of the narrator evokes images of a man who hates his work, a racist, where drinking is “one of [their] pastimes (Wolff 114)” and smoking cannabis is such a routine he does not think twice about offering it to a stranger. He wallows in his self-absorbed isolation unable to progress and develop a life for his own. He married someone else’s high school sweetheart and there is no mention of his name. With his lack of personality however, it is not necessary for it to be revealed. In the first s...