View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What drink does the blind man ask for when the narrator offers him one after his arrival?
(a) Tequila
(b) Vodka
(c) Rum
(d) Scotch

2. The narrator says of the blind man that he’d done “a little bit of everything, it seemed, a regular” what?
(a) John Muir
(b) Disabled explorer
(c) Barry Fitzgerald
(d) Blind jack-of-all-trades

3. What kind of paper does the blind man ask the narrator to go get when they are talking late at night?
(a) Wax paper
(b) Heavy paper
(c) Tissue paper
(d) Typewriter paper

4. What term describes a movement where a literary or artistic work is set out to expose the essence or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts?
(a) Minimalism
(b) Focused
(c) Critical
(d) Truism

5. What did the blind man ask the narrator’s wife if he could do on her last day working for him?
(a) Read a book to him
(b) Kiss her on the cheek
(c) Hear her sing
(d) Touch her face

Short Answer Questions

1. Where in the narrative does the rising action begin?

2. What does the narrator do when the blind man says after the drawing is complete, “Take a look. What do you think?”

3. The narrator says that his wife first contacted the blind man after how much time had passed since she’d worked for him?

4. What does the narrator’s wife say she is going to do upstairs as she exits, leaving the narrator and the blind man alone after dinner?

5. In what year was “Cathedral” first published in a periodical?

Short Essay Questions

1. What prompts the narrator to begin speaking during the television show?

2. From what narrative perspective is the story told? How does this narrative style affect the reader?

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

4. How is the narrator’s “blind drawing” experience described?

5. What conversation does the narrator have with Robert regarding alcohol after Robert’s arrival?

6. Where in the story do you see the first elements of transformation in the protagonist?

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

8. What can the reader discern of the narrator’s jealousy through the exposition in the beginning of the story?

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

10. Where does the rising action take place in “Cathedral”?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 930 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample