Introduction Cathedral is a short story written by Raymond Carver in 1983. During this period when the short story was published, there was an increase in the level of poverty throughout the world. Nevertheless, the situation in the United States was quite different and only a very small section of the population was considered as being poor. The expectations of the American people had significantly declined following the high rates of inflation, the raising rates of unemployment as well as the skyrocketing rates of interest. During this period, the gap between the rich and the drastically widened, the poor became poorer and the rich wealthier. It is against this backdrop that Raymond Carver wrote the short story entitled “The Cathedral” . regarding the life of the Raymond Carver, who is the author of the story, Webster (3), observe that the story came at a time when he had quit his heavy drinking, he had also survive an annulment of his marriage. Brief plot summary The story opens with the narrator who is a man very upset with the fact that a blind man who is a friend of his wife is about to arrive. The conversational tone of the narrator is a clear indication to the reader that he is not happy about the blind man’s visit. The narrator is upset with the visit of the blind man simply because he is blind. The introduction of the story emphasizes the dislike and fear directed towards individuals who are blind. For this reason, the author uses the words “the blind man” in his introduction of the story. As a matter of fact, the blind man is not even given a name because what seems very important to the narrator is the fact that the man is blind. The narrator gets a moment to flashback on the circumstances under which the blind man and his wife met. In the flashback, the reader is made to understand that the narrators’ wife and the blind man met when the wife of the narrator worked for the blind man as his reader. The narrator is irritated by the fact that during the time when the blind man Robert and the narrator’s wife were biding each other goodbye, the blind man asked her if he could be given a chance to touch the face of the narrator’s wife. The blind man and the narrator’s wife have for more than ten years maintained their contact but they had not met during that duration. The visit by the blind man would therefore, be the first time when the two would be meeting since the narrator’s wife got married. The blind man is head to Connecticut where the family of his deceased wife lives. On his way, the blind man intends to spend a night at his long time friend’s (the narrator’s wife) home. The narrator is informed by his wife that Beulah the wife of the blind man had a very good relationship in their marriage. Nonetheless, the narrator could not bring himself to imagine how horrible life must have been for Beulah the wife of the blind man Robert to spend the whole of her life without being seen by the person she had loved the whole of her life. On arrival of the blind man at the narrator’s home, the narrator hardly engage in any form of interaction and only observe his wife and the blind man. After a while dinner is set and they sit at the table for the meal after which drinks are served. During this period, the narrator continued w