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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did the narrator’s wife’s first husband do when he found her after her overdose?
(a) He said a prayer
(b) He started to cry
(c) He kicked the door
(d) He called an ambulance

2. Where does the blind man put his hand as the narrator begins to draw in the story?
(a) On the paper
(b) Over the narrator’s hand
(c) At the edge of the table
(d) On the narrator’s face

3. What is the narrator’s response when his wife asks as she comes downstairs, “What do I smell?”
(a) I needed a cigarette
(b) Just incense my dear
(c) We thought we’d have us some cannabis
(d) I don’t smell anything

4. What term refers to the portion of a story that introduces the important background information, such as the narrator’s descriptions of his wife’s history with the blind man in “Cathedral”?
(a) Rising action
(b) Denouement
(c) Exposition
(d) Climax

5. The blind man discusses his ham radio operator friends in “Guam, in the Philippines, in Alaska, and even” where?
(a) Tahiti
(b) Poland
(c) Australia
(d) Bolivia

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the narrator’s wife look at him when he turns on the television during the talk with the blind man after dinner?

2. At the end of the story, the narrator says, “I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was” what?

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

4. What central theme unites the main characters in “Cathedral”?

5. What was the narrator’s wife’s position when she worked for the blind man?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What are the narrator’s first impressions of Robert after his arrival? How is Robert dressed?

3. What is symbolized through the television set in the story?

4. Where in the story does the protagonist undergo an “epiphany”?

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

6. What does the reader learn about the narrator when he and his wife discuss their friends prior to the blind man’s arrival?

7. Why does the narrator pity Beulah in the beginning of the story?

8. How many drinks do the narrator, his wife, and Robert have before dinner? What do they discuss?

9. How is the theme of alienation illustrated through the protagonist in the story?

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

(see the answer keys)

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