Cathedral

The protagonist in “Cathedral,” Bub, is a man who has several defining characteristics. Bub is insecure, insensitive, and ignorant. This is clearly shown in Bub’s relationships with his wife and Robert. Bub’s insecurities are blatantly shown when he comments on his wife’s ex-husband:

Her officer-why should be have a name? He was her childhood sweetheart, and what more does he want?

Bub resents the ex-husband for being his wife’s first love. He would have liked to have had that role so he negatively addresses his wife’s past relationships. Bub’s unconfident mannerisms further transpire when he comments on his wife’s relationship with Robert. He states:

In time she put it all on tape and sent the tape to the blind man. Over the years she put all kinds of stuff on tapes and sent the tapes off lickety-split. Next to writing a poem every year, I think it was her chief recreation. On the tape, she told the blind man she’d decided to live away from her officer for a time. On another tape she told him about her divorce. She and I began going out, and of course she told her blind man about it. She told him everything, or so it seemed to me.

This intense friendship between his wife and Robert further exacerbated his insecurities. Robert and his wife have an intimate relationship that Bub has never, and probably will never, have with his wife. He goes on to say:

My wife finally took her eyes off the blind man and looked at me. I had the feelings she didn’t like what she saw. I shrugged.

This relationship offers Bub only one consolation, he believes that because he can see that has an advantage. He constantly refers to Robert as “the blind man.” He never uses Robert’s name or assigns any human attributes to him. This insecurity is partially responsible for his wife’s continued involvement with Robert.

Also responsible for his wife’s close relationship with Robert is Bub’s inability to feel. He exhibits a great lack of emotional depth. Bub comments on Robert’s marriage:

They’d married, lived and worked together, slept together-had sex, sure- and then the blind man had to bury her. All this without having never seen what the goddamned woman looked like.

He has no feelings of sympathy for the loss of Robert’s wife. Bub goes on to comment about his wife telling him exactly happened to Robert’s wife. He says, “My wife filled me in with more detail than I cared to know” (582). He cannot comprehend the type of love that existed between Robert and Robert’s wife. How could he? He does not have that in his own marriage. Bub states without any emotion the circumstances which led up to her attempted suicide. He also comments on his wife’s poetry saying that he did not particularly care for it. He is not adept at feeling anything. He is emotionally shut off. This is why Bub’s wife shares her poetry and feelings with Robert.

Bub is also very ignorant. He comments about the blind man’s upcoming visit, “My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs” (958). He makes many other comments upon Robert’s arrival that illustrate his lack of knowledge. He asks Robert “What side of the train did you sit on?” and asks his wife if he should take Robert bowling. He has absolutely no idea how someone who cannot see could actually function normally.

The initial conflict is that Robert is coming to Bub’s house. Robert comments on this:

I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me […] a blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to (958).

Bub is intimidated by Robert’s relationship with his wife and, needless to say, is not thrilled by meeting the man that has a much more intimate relationship with his wife. Moreover, he is not comfortable with the fact that Robert is blind. Bub has many misconceptions about the blind which make him even more uncomfortable.

The turning point in the story begins when Bub realizes that Robert lives a fairly normal life. Bub comments about Robert’s eating dinner:

I