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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. How does the narrator say he felt about their old sofa (that they replaced) when the blind man arrives?
(a) I’d liked that old sofa
(b) I hated that crummy sofa
(c) I still remember the day I bought it
(d) I found it so uncomfortable

2. What novelist was Raymond Carver’s mentor and teacher?
(a) Horace Greeley
(b) Margaret Fuller
(c) Henry David Thoreau
(d) John Gardner

3. For what literary genre is author Raymond Carver most well known?
(a) Science fiction
(b) Epic literature
(c) Absurdist drama
(d) Minimalist fiction

4. Where is McGuire A.F.B. located?
(a) California
(b) Kansas
(c) Georgia
(d) New Jersey

5. What is the narrator’s prayer before dinner in the story?
(a) Pray for good weather and sound sleep
(b) Pray the bills are paid and we wake up tomorrow
(c) Pray the phone won’t ring and the food doesn’t get cold
(d) Pray for Robert’s wife

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the narrator describe the windows he draws on the cathedral in the story?

2. What does the narrator describe as “little statues carved to look like monsters”?

3. The narrator surmises of the blind man’s wife that she could wear what color eye-shadow around one eye and it wouldn’t make a difference?

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

5. The narrator says of the “officer-to-be” that he’d been his wife’s what?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator characterize his usual evenings in the story? What does this indicate about his character?

2. What does the blind man suggest when he feels the drawing is complete? How does the narrator respond?

3. How is the theme of creativity manifested through the protagonist at the end of the story?

4. How does the narrator describe the scene once his wife has gone upstairs after dinner?

5. How does the narrator’s wife suggest the narrator act toward Robert when he visits?

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

7. How are the narrator’s perceptions of race illustrated in “Cathedral”?

8. How is the theme of creativity illustrated through the protagonist in the beginning of “Cathedral”?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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