“Cathedral”

 Reading this story was a bit of an experience because I was cringing at the blatant ableism of the narrator throughout the whole thing. The way that he didn’t seem to think that Robert could have a fulfilling life or that those who cared about him could have fulfilling relationships with him was pretty upsetting. Even the author showed some ableism, with what was meant to be a positive thing, the recounting of Robert touching the narrator’s wife’s face, is pretty offensive to blind people, despite the trope’s popularity. 

I appreciated how the narrator’s revelation at the end wasn’t because Robert was actively trying to get through to him. A lot of the time, it seems like the disabled person or person of color or what have you is actively trying to teach the protagonist about what they’re wrong about in this kind of story, which can be its own kind of problematic because it removes the responsibility of learning from the privileged person and puts the responsibility of teaching on the unprivileged person. It was pretty refreshing to see that the narrator was able to learn without having to be hand-held the entire way from just accepting that he needed to learn.

On a more narrative level, it was interesting that the first genuine connection that the narrator seems to have is with someone that he had so much disdain for. He doesn’t seem to care about his wife very much, and although we aren’t told about the rest of his life I would guess that the rest of his relationships are similar. It seemed like trying to draw the cathedral was the first time that he really communicated and connected with someone else.