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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 is the narrator’s response when his wife asks as she comes downstairs, “What do I smell?”

2. After showing a cathedral in Portugal, the television show next travels to show a cathedral where?

3. What does the blind man remark about the narrator’s television set, saying, “Don’t ask me how, but I can tell”?

4. Of his knowledge of cathedrals, the blind man says that he knows from the television show that they took about how many years to build?

5. How many short stories are included in the anthology Cathedral?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is signified by the narrator’s choice to keep his eyes closed at the end of the story?

2. How does the narrator describe his wife’s last in-person meeting with the blind man?

3. How does the narrator describe Robert’s arrival in the story?

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

5. How is the post-dinner conversation described by the narrator? What prompts him to turn on the television?

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

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

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

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

10. How are the characters in “Cathedral” representative of Raymond Carver’s style?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the roles and expectations of gender as depicted in “Cathedral.” How are the traditional roles and expectations of women reflected in the narrative? How does the narrator perceive “masculinity”? What role do you think gender plays in the story?

Essay Topic 2

Define “foreshadowing” in narrative literature and discuss examples of foreshadowing in “Cathedral.” How is the topic of religion foreshadowed in the dinner scene and later explored in the ending of the story? What else does the author foreshadow? What purpose does this example serve in the narrative? Does it build suspense? Does it create humor?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the theme of “rebirth” and the transformation of the narrator from the beginning of the story to the end. How do you think the narrator has changed from his interactions with Robert? Do you think this change is a good thing? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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