Cathedral

This story was very intriguing and caught my attention from the first sentence. The narrator, who is the husband of the woman with the blind friend, uses very relaxed and conversational language. Such as beginning a sentence with "this" and "so" and eliminating the use of pronouns at the beginning of sentences. Reading this story was much like the story was being spoken to you. This kept my focus more intently than the other stories we have read this semester. 

The friendship between Robert and the wife, who is unnamed seems almost too good to be true. It seemed, or the narrator made it seem, as if there had to be something suspicious or unusual about this blind man. At one point I started to think that he might turn out to murder the wife or something during the stay at their house because of the suspition in which the narrator spoke of him. I am also curious about the relationship between the wife and Robert and the time when he touched her face. It seemed to be intimate but at the same time it was not. It was quite an unclear situation that made their relationship seem odd, the way in which the moment was spoken of. 

I noticed that the couple in the story drink a lot. The husband and Robert had at least eight drinks over the period of which this story was told; While they were having a somewhat awkward conversation about Robert's trip after he had first arrived, over dinner, and after dinner, seemed to be filled with "drinks" and many cigarettes. I was surprised when the narrator brought out his "dope" and began to smoke it with Robert. It was interesting to see this being used in literature because it is not used and portrayed so lightly in most of anything you see or read about cannabis. Usually, it is a "drug" and is associated with bad, horrible things and people. I feel like so many people in real life do use it and portray it as not a big deal, but in the world of entertainment and everything we are taught, it is seen as something much worse than it really is. It's nice to be reminded that there are normal people out there. 

Robert's presence in the house and with the husband made for quite an uncomfortable situation for them as well as for me, the reader. I could feel the husband's uneasyness and feel his discomfort. I do not understand why Raymond Carver decided to have Robert and the narrator watch a show about Cathedrals and have him try to explain to Robert what they were. I don't know why they drew one together or what the meaning or significance of that moment was. Since the title of the story is "Cathedral" it must have something to do with the whole point of the story, although I have no idea why. It will be interesting to read what other people think it means and what it has to do with the blind man. This story has been my favorite so far although I did not like the ending because the it just stopped, without conclusion or reason. Hopefully by reading other writing journals will help me to draw conclusions.