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Plato’s “Myth of the Cave” and Carver’s Cathedral provide insight into
parallel words. The protagonists in each story are trapped in a world of
ignorance because each is comfortable in the dark, and fearful of what knowledge
a light might bring. They are reluctant to venture into unfamiliar territory.
Fortunately the narrator in the Cathedral is forced by circumstances to take a
risk. This risk leads him into new world of insight and understanding. The
narrator in “The Cathedral” begins the story with the issue of hesitation in
seeing the light. The light in this story just like the light in Plato’s “Myth
of the Cave” represents reality. The narrator expresses the fear of expressing
reality when he said “ I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I
knew. And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the
movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they
were led by seeing eye-dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I look
forward to”. (Page 98). The narrator felt that being blind was like being in a
type of prison and the preconceived notion of self-imprisonment was frightening
to him. He felt that blindness was exactly like being a prisoner in Plato’s
Cave, a scary world where no light ever penetrated. Unfortunately, the husband
is imprisoned in his own ignorance.
His view of blindness had come from
Hollywood’s portrayal of blind people. As far as he is concerned, his situation
is completely normal. He knows there are lots of people just like him. In “The
Cathedral” the extent of the husband’s ignorance or naiveté is extremely
irritating. When his wife tells him the beautiful story of the blind man’s
romantic relationship with his wife Beulah, all he could think of is “ What a
pitiful life this woman must have led. Imagine a woman who could never see
herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one. A woman who could on day
after day and never see the smallest compliment from her beloved. A woman whose
husband could never read the expression on her face, be it misery or something
better”. (Page 100). But the blind man had sight in the form of intuitiveness.
This sight gave him greater vision than the sighted man. The blind man had a
sense of and source of reality in the truth and strength of the relationship.
This man was unlike the prisoners in the cave. The humans in the cave had no
such reality. No love warmth or human contact. The prisoners in the cave had no
knowledge of those things. The fire and the shadow provided the only reality for
them. This was their source of knowledge and their source of contact with the
world. For these people their “cave life” and their ignorance created a world
worse than the blind man’s. Unknown to the prisoners in the cave an elevated
causeway crosses through the cave. The prisoners do not know where this road
will lead them. In Carver’s “Cathedral”, the narrator did not realize that the
blind man was in his “causeway” out of ignorance. He did not realize that the
simple act of his wife inviting the blind guest would lead to major new
discoveries about himself and his ignorance. The narrator’s wife has been
exposed to knowledge, which is what Robert represents in this story, for many
years.
She was more aware of the world because of her relationship with Robert.
This exposure was instrumental in presenting her husband with a learning
opportunity. Her husband was given the opportunity to see the light. This was
territory into which he would have never ventured on his own. His fears from his
own cave prevented such risky behavior. This was opportunity for him to learn,
grow, and develop in a myriad of ways. He would gain in his relationship with
his wife. He would gain new insights about himself, and most of all he would
gain knowledge that would pull him out of his own cave. The narrator saw the
blind man “drink” and ‘smoke cigarette down to the nubbin”. He saw the blind man
“enjoy dope and whiskey’. These glimpses of reality opened his life as he made
discoveries that risk enhanced his life-risk did not detract from it. The
prisoners in Plato’s Cave do not realize that reality is as near as the causeway
out of the cave. They do not know that they must take risk to gain knowledge.
They are comfortable in the mistaken belief of what reality is because the fire
is their only source of knowledge about the world. In Carver’s Cathedral, the
narrator is enlightened by Robert’s capabilities “We sat down at the table for
dinner. We dug in. We ate everything there was to eat on the table. We ate like
there was no tomorrow.
We didn’t talk. We ate. We scarfed. We grazed that table.
We were into serious eating. The blind man had right away located his foods; he
knew just where everything was on his plate. I watched with admiration as he
used his knife and fork on the meat. He’d cut two pieces of meat, fork the meat
into his mouth, and then go all out for the scalloped potatoes, the beans next,
and then he’d tear off a hunk of buttered bread and eat that. He’d follow this
up with a big drink of milk. It didn’t seem to bother him to use his fingers
once in a while, either’. (Page 102). Curiously, the final insight for the
husband comes when he closes his eyes in order to imagine and draw the
cathedral. ”Close your eyes now, the blind man said to me. I did it. I closed
them just like he said. Are they closed? He said. Don’t fudge. They are closed,
I said. Keep them that way, he said. He said, don’t stop now. Draw. So we kept
on with it. His fingers rode my fingers as my hand went over the paper. It was
nothing else in my life up to now. Then he said, I think that’s it. I think you
got it, he said. Take a look. What do you think? But I had my eyes closed. I
thought I would keep them that way for a little longer. I thought it was
something I ought to do. Well, he said. Are you looking? My eyes were still
closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But, I didn’t feel like I was inside
anything. It’s really something I said”. (Page 108). By becoming blind he sees
clearly how the blind man’s world really is. Being temporarily blind opens his
eyes to the world around him. He can understand the handicap, with understanding
comes compassion, and the compassion has caused him to develop new insight into
the world around him. Interaction with the blind man has allowed him to see, and
has removed him from his own personal cave.
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