"Cathedral" and Gender Roles

Paper Summary:

In this article the writer introduces, discusses and analyzes the short story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver. Specifically, it examines how gender roles and social class figure into the overall theme or message of the story. The writer points out that gender and social class play a pivotal role in this short story. Further, the writer notes that the central themes of the story revolve around these issues and the ultimate meaning of the story indicates that the narrator, Bub, has come to terms with his own prejudices about social class and disability, and there is hope he will be more open and caring in the future. The writer concludes that the message in this story is that men and women build walls between each other because of their gender, and those walls really do not need to exist at all.

From the Paper:

""Cathedral" is really a story about isolation and gender roles, or about how men and women see gender roles differently. The narrator is a cold and unfeeling man who isolates himself from the world by alienating himself from his wife and anyone else. He is not open to new ideas, such as poetry or socializing with a blind man. His wife however, is more open to new ideas, but because she loves her husband, she allows him to stifle her and her creative urges. She plays her own role, too, by acting as the "perfect" wife - cooking meals, cleaning up, doing the dishes, etc. She makes the meal when the blind man comes to visit, while the narrator makes the drinks. That is another indication of their strict gender roles."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Carver, Raymond. Cathedral: Stories. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1983. 209-228.

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