"Cathedral" is an enjoyable reading experience because most of my classmates whom I have asked enjoy reading it and have more attachment to this work. Having read this story several times, I like the way that the author, Raymond Carver, plots the story with deliberately shaping the characters and setting up many symbolic hints in "Cathedral". The story is mainly about how the narrator is enlightened and awakened his dried spirit after interacting with the blind, Robert, a friend of the narrator's wife. From my observation to the title and the content of the story, Caver tries to emphasize on the narrator's changing and the personality contrast with Robert, inserting many religious symbols and clues to the story which indirectly point out the theme that faithful life presented by Robert can lead to more colorful life rather than faithless life which refers to the narrator.
             After reading the first part of the story, we can figure out Carver shapes the characteristics of the narrator as a narrow-minded person who judges people superficially and stereotypically. The narrator has some sort of bias to the blind people so he doesn't like Robert at the first place "A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to" (Carver 186). He doesn't like anyone who is blind even if the person is his wife's most precious friend.
             From his limited knowing of blind people, the narrator also has many stereotypes and lots of misunderstandings toward the blind people. For instance, he describes that "My Idea of blindness came from the movie. In the movies the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dog" (Carver 186). The fact shows that the narrator is totally wrong in his concepts of how being blind is like and he selfishly prefers he wear a pair of dark glasses, to avoid Robert's creepy eye. Robert laughs a lot in the story and is ab...