The narrator's preconceived notions about blind people are dispelled once he actually meets Robert in person. Before Robert's arrival, the narrator is extremely closed-minded. It is unlikely the narrator has encountered many disabled people in his life, and he does not know what to expect. What is certain is that he does not look forward to Robert's visit. He is prejudiced against Robert due to his blindness. Also, he is weary of Robert's relationship with his wife.
Once Robert arrives, the narrator is surprised at all of the things this blind man is capable of doing. Initially, the narrator is shocked that this blind man has a beard. It had never occurred to him that blind men could grow and maintain facial hair. Next, he is surprised to see that Robert is able to eat dinner without assistance. Finally, he is intrigued to learn that Robert is able to smoke a cigar. Before meeting Robert, the narrator thought of blind people as weak and unable to care for themselves. However, seeing Robert able to behave as a normal person would shatters the narrator's image of what a blind person is. The narrator even goes as far as to smoke a joint with his new friend.
The experience of drawing the cathedral with Robert changes the narrator's perception as well. When Robert asks the narrator to describe a cathedral to him, the narrator discovers that he is incapable of doing so. The fact that he has his sight does not preclude him from struggling when it comes to the art of description. He then has a transformative experience drawing a cathedral with Robert. Rather than using his sight, he learns to engage his other four senses and rely on his memory to conjure the image of the cathedral. In a sense, he steps into Robert's shoes for a few minutes and gains an appreciation for Robert as a person.
The narrator is annoyed that the blind man, Robert, is coming to visit the narrator's wife. He does not want to share his home with Robert. The narrator says that blind people make him uncomfortable. He has only known them as dour figures in films. Then the narrator contradicts this statement by sharing his wife's recollections of Robert. Still, the narrator is uncomfortable. He has no empathy for Robert, Robert's condition, or for the very recent death of Robert's wife.
The narrator's discomfort and jealousy grow when Robert arrives, but soon the narrator begins to soften. He notices that Robert does not fit his preconceived notions (Robert smokes and the narrator thought blind people don't smoke because they can't see their exhalations). The narrator later "watched with admiration" as Robert elegantly navigates his dinner plate. The narrator also notices that Robert does not carry a cane or wear dark glasses, another preconceived notion proven false.
When the narrator's wife goes upstairs for a moment, he is left alone with Robert and wishes he was not. Yet, he offers Robert another drink, and he offers to share a joint with his guest. The narrator kindly teaches Robert how to smoke a joint. Then the narrator's wife falls asleep, and the narrator is once again alone with Robert. This time, the narrator finds he is "glad for the company." Usually, the narrator is alone at night.
The men watch television together and the narrator tries to describe what he sees, which places him in a caregiving role. The narrator does his best to describe the cathedrals that are shown on the screen, but he eventually gives up. When Robert suggests that they try drawing a cathedral together, the narrator complies. The narrator even surprises himself with his own ability to draw the cathedral, another preconceived notion dashed (this time about himself and not about blind people).
The narrator closes his eyes at Robert's behest, and he keeps them closed even after Robert tells him to open them. With his eyes closed, the narrator begins to feel differently. He knows he is in his home, but he feels like he isn't "inside anything." This is a feeling of freedom, of imagination in the mind's eye. Because of this, the narrator tells Robert that their drawing is "really something."
The narrator's lack of empathy towards people who are blind changes by the end of the story as he develops his own relationship with Robert. At the beginning of "Cathedral," the narrator dreads the arrival of his wife's friend Robert. Not only is this friend someone from his wife's past and therefore, an unspoken threat to the narrator's perceptions of his wife and their relationship, the friend is also blind; the narrator's lack of empathy suggests that he has not had much experience with blind people, so he would rather keep his distance from them and their seeing-eye dogs and the other trappings of being blind the narrator has learned from the movies.
By the end of the story, Robert and the narrator have bonded. Robert has asked the narrator to describe a cathedral for him, and the narrator can't do it, which humbles him and makes him realize that having sight doesn't guarantee knowledge. Robert persuades the narrator to partake in a drawing exercise with his eyes closed, and Robert places his hand over the narrator's hand as he draws a cathedral with his eyes shut, and the narrator describes the experience as "like nothing else in my life up to now." This moment of connection between Robert and the narrator serves to personalize the experience of being blind for the narrator, and the distance between the narrator and blind people in general closes. The narrator now has some appreciation for the experience of blind people.
Initially, the narrator is unsympathetic to Robert's blindness. He appears to subscribe to the dominant prejudice of the time that looks upon blind people as somehow helpless and weak; nothing more than a burden to society. No wonder then that he makes it crystal clear that Robert isn't welcome at his home: “A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to.” In this quotation is encapsulated one of the main themes of the story. It is the narrator rather than Robert who is really blind. He cannot see why his wife finds him so fascinating; nor does he understand what it's like for someone to live in a world without sight.
Yet this is ironic indeed. For it is the narrator whose world is narrowed by a lack of vision, not Robert's. Robert's imaginative world is infinitely richer and more multifaceted than that of the narrator. When Robert takes the narrator's hand and they begin to draw the picture of a cathedral, the narrator finally realises something very important. Not only do the blind and the sighted share the same world, but blind people also inhabit a world of their own, one which, when communicated to the sighted, can provide an added dimension to their experience of life in all its richness and diversity.
No comments:
Post a Comment