Finally, though, it is imagery that marks the difference between the two men as one thinks only in terms of pictures and the other, upon reflection, must admit that he really has no idea of what is meant by the word ‘cathedral’. In the poem, she talked about what she had felt at the time, about what went through her mind when the blind man touched her nose and lips.” As he tries to decide what to talk about with the blind man, the narrator cannot seem to get away from the visual, wanting to suggest which side of the train to sit on for the best view of the Hudson. “She told me he touched his fingers to every part of her face, her nose-even her neck! She never forgot it … In the poem, she recalled his fingers and the way they had moved around over her face. The narrator tells us what his wife has told him about the blind man coming to visit, evoking a tender scene in which a very intimate and deeply moving connection was made between the wife and the blind man. Imagery provides the reader with a picture of what is going on in the story and, in this story, provides the first indication that the blind man is not as ‘blind’ as the narrator. The narrator has proven himself to be blind in his thoughts and ideas and this has made him mute in the company he’s keeping. When he turns the TV on, it is clear he does so out of boredom with the conversation and as a means of synthesizing some of the information he’s received regarding the blind man, simply by watching him. His concerns and ideas regarding the blind man seem completely unfounded and irrational, such as his surprise that a blind man might choose to wear a full beard, while his ideas regarding what to talk about remain hopelessly figured on the visual.

Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs.” The narrator quickly emerges as a man blinded by ignorance as he first wonders whether he should take a blind man bowling for entertainment or if his wife was black based upon her name, Beulah. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. My idea of blindness came from the movies.

He says, “And his being blind bothered me. The narrator admits from the very beginning of the story that he is nervous about having a blind man in his house, suggesting that he himself is actually quite blind to the reality of the world around him.

Raymond carver's short story cathedral