“The Cathedral” of Raymond Carver’s

Through the conversation in the night between the blind man and the narrator, the narrator learned some valued lessons from the blind and from himself. These good lessons are not only for the narrator but also for us. In the beginning of the story, the narrator thought that the sighted man can see anything and of course he was better than the blind. However, from the blind man's stories about his life, the narrator learned that the blind man just was physical blind but he knew everything like a sighted man. When the narrator's wife told him about the visit of the blind man, the narrator's attitude towards the blind was not very pleased and unenthusiastic. Because the narrator looked down on the blind and he thought that the blind was useless and depressing. In contrast, the blind man was able to know and see everything happening around him. In the narrator's mind, all the blind always use a cane and wear dark glasses but he didn't see these at the blind man. The blind man could know the television was turning on that was the color one. He said: "this is a color TV", "don't ask me how, but I can tell". Moreover, the blind man is an inquiring mind person. When the narrator changed channels on TV, the blind didn't mind and said "I'm always learning something. Learning never ends. It won't hurt me to learn something tonight". It was a reason why he had wide knowledge. He could not see anything but he gets ears. He learned by hearing. For instance, he said: "I know they took hundreds of workers fifty or a hundred years to build" … "I just heard the man say that, of course". In addition, his attitude towards the life is optimistic. He had a lot of friends in many countries while the narrator didn't have any friends. When the blind asked the narrator to describe how the cathedral is, it was so hard for him to describe it. At this time, the blind helped the non-blind to draw; as a result, they could draw a good picture while the narrator was keeping his eyes closed. Then, he recognized that he was worse than a blind man. Just within one night there is a significant change inside the narrator from a subjective and haughty person to a person who admitted that his idea was wrong. In short, the blind man was a very great person who knows how to overcome his handicap. He could take full advantage of his ears to collect any information in over the world. Just one night the narrator learned a lot from the blind man. He changed his point of view about the blind. One of the good lessons is that we shouldn't make an assessment on others based on their appearance.

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