Explication of "Cathedral"
...dral” with the narrator telling us he is not excited about this blind man coming to his house and it also is shown quit clearly through out the story. Things often change when food is brought into an uncomfortable circumstance, but in this story it didn’t seem to alter the situation. We are told that at dinner they “finish everything” that was served, “including half a strawberry pie.” We are left wondering why they would eat so much food. Eating seems to be the only thing that they all have common and if they keep eating then he (the narrator) doesn’t need to talk to the blind man. When they notice what they have done they just sit there not sure what to do next, “…as if stunned.” Then they begin worrying about what to do. This is shown when the narrator says, “Sweat beaded on our faces.” As with most people they are sweating more because they are in an awkward situation. This shows how uncomfortable they are, not just slightly sweaty but “beads” of sweat signifying large amounts of sweat. The situation is so unnerving they all just want to escape to walk away and never “look back.” It is interesting when they go back to the living room and they “…sank into our places again.” It almost seems a way of trying to start all over again. Maybe if they sit in the same places again it will be easier this time. The blind man and the wife sit on the sofa together, like they belong together, while the person who is telling us the story sits in a different chair, “…the big chair.” May be he is trying to feel he is the more important person and he needs the big chair because this is his house, his wife. By this part of the story we are pretty sure that the narrator is very jealous of the blind man.. But this next part of the story makes us sure of it. As the wife and the blind man continue to talk and catch up on the last ten years of each others lives the narrator just listens. Even though he lets us know that he tries to enter the conversation, it is only for selfish reasons that he gives any effort at all. He doesn’t want them to think he has left the room; he wants then to know he is still there. He doesn’t want his wife,”…to think [he] is feeling left out.” He wants to prove he can be apart of the connection his wife and the blind man have. But the narr...