Cathedral Themes

"Cathedral" looks at the unstable nature of reality. For example, the unnamed narrator's reality, or his vision of Robert, a blind man, is based on images from the movies about blind people, his wi...

This is the theme in "Cathedral" that pulls everybody in. We all want to be better communicators. We all have trouble, at least from time to time, expressing ourselves, and understanding what those...

The events described in "Cathedral" take place on a single night, yet we see a variety of transformations. Some of these might seem fairly common – from sober to intoxicated, sleeping to waki...

"Cathedral" features a married couple and recent widower who come together for an evening. The unnamed narrator and his wife are having big problems, and the outcome of the evening just might deter...

In "Cathedral" there are about 22 drinks consumed by the three main characters over the course of an evening. Plus, the three have no problem adding marijuana to the mix. As we discuss in "Genre" s...

"Cathedral" shows a distinct movement from dissatisfaction to satisfaction. The unnamed man who narrates the story oozes dissatisfaction from every pore at the very beginning. We can see that he pr...