View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does the narrator’s wife fall asleep after they’ve smoked marijuana?

2. What are in the bottom of the shopping bag that the narrator gathers for the blind man at night?

3. When the narrator’s wife first contacted the blind man after working for him, she called him from what state?

4. The blind man comments to the narrator as he draw the cathedral, “What’s a cathedral without” what?

5. 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?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does the narrator offer to Robert after his wife passes out? How does Robert respond?

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

4. How does the author describe his wife’s poetry in “Cathedral”?

5. How does the narrator feel about the blind man’s visit in the beginning of the story? What are his impressions of “the blind”?

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the plot structure of “Cathedral.”How “traditional” do you find the plot structure of the story to be? What about the story’s style makes it more difficult to determine the elements of plot? What does the author employ in order to build suspense in the narrative?

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 prejudice as it applies to the narrator in “Cathedral.” How does the narrator demonstrate his prejudice about the blind early in the narrative? How does his prejudice change through the story? How is the narrator’s prejudice in the story developed around ignorance?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 948 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample