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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator say about his and his wife’s sleeping patterns in the story?

2. What does the narrator’s wife say when she awakens as the narrator is drawing a cathedral?

3. What is the narrator’s prayer before dinner in the story?

4. According to the narrator’s wife, how many people were in attendance at the blind man’s wedding?

5. What are the first words that the blind man says to the narrator when he arrives?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the narrator’s prayer before dinner? How is the dinner described by the narrator?

2. What are the narrator’s thoughts after his wife falls asleep, leaving him alone with Robert?

3. How does the author describe his wife’s poetry in “Cathedral”?

4. How did the narrator’s wife come to know the blind man? How is this information revealed in the story?

5. What is signified by the narrator’s final lines in the story?

6. How does the narrator describe Robert’s eyes in the story?

7. Why does the narrator say the blind man is coming to visit in the beginning of the story?

8. How does the narrator’s wife respond when he turns on the television? What conversation ensues?

9. What takes place in the story as it builds to its climax?

10. What is Robert’s response when the narrator offers him marijuana after dinner? What is his experience with the drug?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast the marriage of the narrator and his wife and the marriage of Robert and Beulah as seen in the text. How are these relationships similar? How do they differ?

Essay Topic 2

Describe and discuss the theme of learning in “Cathedral.” What is the importance of learning as an individual? How is this reflected in the story? Do you think that the narrator effectively “learns something” by the end of the story?

Essay Topic 3

Describe and discuss the setting of “Cathedral.” Of what importance is the setting of the story? Could the story be set in a different time and place? How would this change the story?

(see the answer keys)

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