Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral" opens with an irritated narrator telling the reader in a conversational tone that his wife has invited a blind friend to spend the night. The narrator's words and actions tell us immediately that he is clearly unhappy about the upcoming visit at the beginning.

The narrator flashes back to the story of how his wife met the blind man. She hadn't seen him since she worked for him one summer in Seattle ten years ago. Since she moved away from Seattle, she has maintained contact with him by sending tapes, on which she has told him anything about her life, such as her divorce and remarriage. The relationship between narrator's wife and the old man bothers the narrator somehow.

At that night, the narrator feels uncomfortable to deal with the blind man at first. After the dinner, he begins to relax with the...