Cathedral
Biography:
 Raymond Carver Clevie Jr. (1938-1988) was an American novelist and poet.
He revitalized the form of the short story.
He wrote Cathedral, a short story, in 1983.
Summary of Cathedral:
 The narrator welcomed an old friend of his wife, Robert, at his home for the night.
But he was blind and the narrator had a lot of prejudices. During the evening, the
narrator was inimical to him, nevertheless, when Robert offered him to draw with
him a cathedral, they became much closer. Finally, the narrator got rid of his
prejudices. This experience was like nothing else in his life up to then!
Critical assessment of the text:
 We can notice that Raymond Carver evoked a lot of philosophical messages:
 The erotic ascent
The erotic ascent according to Plato is the way to find absolute beauty thanks to love. Going
through the stages in the pyramid, we reach this beauty with someone’s help or without.
Robert, like a philosopher, guided the narrator and we can see lots of sex allusions in his
encouragements. He encourages the learner with sentences such as: “You’re doing fine”,
“Keep it up”, or “Close your eyes now”. There are also phallic symbols: the pen or “ballpoint”
symbolize a men’s sex, and the station which went off the air symbolizes an ejaculation.
Furthermore, at the beginning, the narrator was jealous of Robert but at the end they
became closer and they communicated. The fact that they drew together a cathedral
symbolizes a sexual intercourse, that’s why the narrator’s wife was shocked to see them
“drawing” together. Moreover, Robert was married with someone that he had never seen,
and it reminds us of the interior beauty that Plato spoke about.
 The allegory of the cave
The allegory of the cave by Plato tells us the story of people who are prisoners in a cave and
who got fetters. The fetters which link the narrator with all the narrow-minded people,
symbolize prejudices. As they are chained up and turned to the wall, they can just see the
shadows projected by the light. The T.V. symbolized the shadows which manipulated the
narrator.
As he can’t leave the “cave” alone, like a prisoner, he needs a philosopher: Robert guided
him and helped him to confront himself with reality. The light represents reality. In the end,
thanks to Robert, the narrator reaches the truth.
 The moralities
o We all have prejudices and we should realize how stupid it can be. The fact that we
didn’t know the name of the narrator helps for our identification with him.
o Even if we are lying to ourselves, we can change and leave our cave!
My point of view:
I really liked this short story because of the humor used by Raymond Carver to make us
understand important things. The vocabulary was easy.The title sounds boring but in fact the
story isn’t at all, so it’s was surprising. I also like the positive end and the several levels of
reading of the text, although I was shocked by the phallic allusion that I didn’t see at the first
reading. However, when I understood it, I was very amused to see the reaction of the wife
when she saw them drawing. Robert Carver, in his story, paid a beautiful tribute to Plato.
I’m sure that if you read it, you are going to love it!
CAMARA Elisabeth 1reL