Cathedral- Raymond Carver

Of the three short stories we read for Wednesday's class, "Cathedral" was my favorite. I had already read A&P before in another class, and I had heard of James Joyce before, but Raymond Carver was an unknown to me. One thing I find particularly interesting about this short story is that the relationship between Raymond Carver, the writer, and the character of the narrator. The writing style is extremely basic and choppy, especially in the beginning, but because this story is told from a first-person point-of-view, this could be attributed to the fact that the unnamed narrator of this story may not be that good of a writer himself. I'm sure Raymond Carver is more than capable of producing writing that is more elevated and interesting, but that kind of writing would not particularly fit with what the narrator is trying to say. The narrator himself does not seem to be too particular skilled or interested in writing. For example, on page 35 of the text, the narrator remarks "When we first started going out together, she showed me the poem... I didn't think much of the poem. Of course, I didn't tell her that. Maybe I just don't understand poetry." The narrator's perspective on the whole situation is difficult to interpret as well. Towards the beginning of the story, even though he knows his name, he still prefers to call Robert, "the blind man", and even though towards the end, the two seem to bond over the drawing of the cathedral, it is unclear how much the narrator's attitude towards Robert really changed, considering that at the time, both characters had been drinking and smoking marijuana.