Raymond Carver's Cathedral
This short story is about a blind man coming to visit a good friend of many years and her husband. Initially, the narrator (husband) is completely ignorant of the ways of the blind, knowing only what the movies put forth. The blind man needed a worker one summer to read him the papers for his job. During that summer, the wife became very good friends with the man. They kept in contact for a great many years and when the mans wife died, he came to visit.
During the story, the narrator chooses not to mention his or his wife's name. The narrator puts all the focus on Robert. Except the real story isn't about the blind man at all, its about the narrator himself and his coming to terms and education. When they sat down to talk, he was nervous, uncertain.
"I started to say something about the old sofa. I'd liked that old sofa. But I didn't say anything. Then I wanted to say something else, small-talk, about the scenic ride along the Hudson. How going to New York, you should sit on the right-hand side of the train, and coming from New York, the left-hand side." (p 113)The wife is very scared (for lack of a better term) throughout the story for what her husband will say to Robert. This is due to his uncertainty and fear at the beginning. "I wasn't enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me."(p 108) However, as the story progresses, the wife relaxes and goes to sleep leaving Robert and the narrator to talk and watch TV.
The narrator asks if Robert can imagine a cathedral, what exactly it is.
"Maybe you could describe one to me? I wish you'd do it. I'd like that." (p 120) After a failed attempt to verbally describe, the narrator is asked to get paper and pencil and draw it. Robert holds onto his hands while he draws so as feel the paper moving across. After they finished, "My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn't feel like I was inside anything."
Dorothy Allison's River of Names
The title is a great metaphor for the story. Effectively captivating the mind. Not people, just names, stories, flowing through, passing just long enough to be noticed, recognized. Touching be never holding. However, when she uses the title at the end of the story, it weakens its power, almost as if she is out of other words, pushing a metaphor that doesn't need pushing. It works too well to necessitate repetition.
I can't figure out if the narrator is male or female. Jesse, the narrator's lover, could very well be lesbian, since the narrator mentions "my aunt, the one I'm named for" (pg 10), implying at least femininity in name.
The story is really a progression of stories going through the narrators mind as she spends time with Jesse, playing them off like nothing is wrong. "I wake up in the night screaming, 'No, no, I won't!'" and after feeling Jesse's warmth "'Did I fool you?'" (p 10).
She pretends even at her most vulnerable that everything is okay. After all the stories told to us, about the death of cousings, aunts, sisters, the rapes of the children, thievery, suicides, the story ends with two interesting quotes.
1."I can't have children. I never wanted children." (pg 12)
2. Jesse says, "You tell the funniest story" ... "Yeah," I tell her. "But I lie."
Jesse wants to know what the narrators children would be like, implying that she knows little of the real familry. I believe that narrator hides the truth out of fear. Fear of losing her lover. So much tragedy is terrifying and terror has too many unpredictable circumstances.
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