"Cathedral" and Fences: Sight and Stubbornness
Sight is a very prevalent theme in a great variety of fiction; it can often be a symbol for understanding, comprehension, and enlightenment. Hindsight and foresight are often rewarded as virtues, or at least play heavily into the plot of a story. A blind person is often thought to ‘see’, or comprehend, more than the normal person, and sometimes people are not aware of a shocking truth, despite it looking them straight in the face. These two scenarios are found in Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral" and August Wilson's play Fences, as both main characters are proven wrong in their own assumptions; while the narrator in "Cathedral" comes out better for it, Troy in Fences is completely undone by his pride and lack of awareness of his situation.
“Cathedral” is a small, intimate story, one which effectively revolves around two characters – the narrator, a regular average joe, and Robert, a blind man who is an acquaintance of the narrator’s wife. One fateful night, invited over for dinner, the narrator attempts to understand Robert and his way of life, as well as his relationship to his wife. In the process of this, he begins to understand things about himself, life, and Robert that he could not imagine otherwise – this level of understanding is the ‘sight’ that is discussed in the story.
In August Wilson’s Fences, we follow Troy Maxon, a disillusioned, bitter middle-aged man who used to play baseball in his prime – however, since he played before the color barrier was broken in major league baseball, there was no chance for him to shine. This has left him a broken shell of a man who clings to what mild successes he had in the past and participates in an extramarital affair which tears his family apart. Troy’s journey is the most transparently indicative of the American Dream – his dream occupation was baseball, a quintessentially American sport (Koprice, 2006). However, due to the times in which he lived, he could not break the color barrier in the Major Leagues, and therefore had no money saved up. Combined with his increasing age and his low job prospects, he has turned into a bitter alcoholic, doing menial work and maintaining a stressful relationship with his family. His lack of sight is a metaphorical one, as he refuses to see his own jealousy of his son Cory, and anyone else who might benefit from better timing and opportunities, as his own were squandered by race relations at the time - "Times have changed, Troy, you just come along too early" (Wilson, I.i.77). There is a very direct discussion of physical sight in "Cathedral," as Robert is blind and has to deal with all the issues that come into that. However, in the process Robert has come to see in a much different, possibly more enlightened way as a result. He gains a much more subtle understanding of the world, which comes from the ability to comprehend things without being distracted (or blinded) by what the eyes present. This kind of perspective is something the narrator of "Cathedral" gets to eventually benefit from; on the other hand, if Troy were to encounter Robert, he might likely look down upon him and refuse any advice or insight he might have (just as he refuses the help or counsel of anyone else). The narrator in the story goes through a significant character transformation over the course of “Cathedral”. In the beginning, he is somewhat shallow and overly protective of his wife, being slightly wary of the friendship that Robert and his wife share. Due to his sightedness, he assumes that he is superior to Robert, looking down on him as someone who does not carry sufficient skills or quality of life. Because Robert is blind, the narrator assumes that his wife left him because she could not stand the thought of loving someone who could not see her, equating his physical blindness with his inadequacy as a man. The narrator places a great amount of importance on sight, making it the most crucial value to a person. As a result, he does not often use his other faculties and relies on superficiality, making him blind in a sense to the real natures of people (including his wife). Robert, because he cannot see, relies more on listening and understanding; because he listens to the narrator’s wife, he knows her more intimately than the narrator does. He “sees” her in ways the narrator cannot, as is clear from their truncated, brief interactions. Instead, the narrator’s sense of physical sight comes from the arts – stories and drawing. When it comes time to draw a cathedral, he has the narrator join him, leading the narrator to close his eyes and look within for inspiration to draw the building. Robert instructs the narrator to draw the cathedral while Robert holds the drawing hand; this is how Robert ‘sees.’ In the course of this drawing, the narrator understands more about himself, though he cannot articulate it properly in the story. Besides the superficial issues of physical sight and blindness, the narrator’s journey toward true understanding comes from the drawing of said cathedral. Drawing the cathedral is easy for the narrator; however, when it comes time to describe the building on television to Robert, he finds that he cannot. While one may think it is because the sight strikes awe in him, the truth is that he is disaffected by its beauty, since he is only looking at it and not seeing it. Sight can also indicate belief; the cynical, superficial personality of the narrator may well be a secular one, and his inability to describe the cathedral indicates his distance from religion. The narrator even says “I guess I’m agnostic or something,” indicating his blindness to faith and God (Johnson p. 282). When it comes time to really delve into the details of the cathedral in order to draw it for Robert, however, that is when the narrator starts to comprehend what he is going through (Facknitz, 1986).
Troy's perspective on his situation does not improve, unfortunately; he does not receive the moment of clarity that the narrator does. Troy constantly receives advice from others about how to improve his own situation, and to make peace with the fact that he is not the all-star baseball player that he used to be. This blindness and stubbornness causes him to be overprotective and dismissive of his son Cory, who claims that "You just scared I'm gonna be better than you, that's all" (I.iv.166).
“Cathedral,” on the other hand, demonstrates a more positive outcome to the protagonist's confrontation with a world different from what they normally experience, as it presents sight as something to be embraced. The main journey is the protagonist’s path towards experiencing true sight – he was blind to his wife, blind to faith, and blind to the positive qualities of others, until Robert came along and showed him just how important and transcendental things were under the surface. Carver’s use of sight is meant to enlighten and uplift the audience. The narrator and Robert share a very intimate connection, and the initial conflict is subtler; Robert is merely pitied by the narrator as opposed to outright rejected. What’s more, the end of the play sees a greater understanding between them; instead of the narrator being punished for his hubris, the blind character helps him to see what he needs to see, which is the glory of life that lives beneath the surface of sight. With their joining of hands to make the cathedral, they become a close fraternal partnership, understanding one another more closely (Broyard, p. 101). In this way, the theme of sight is elegantly worked into the main theme, and the narrator actually grows as a result.
Troy, unlike the narrator, refuses to grow and evolve from his mistakes, instead choosing to stew and make excuses for his own failures. In light of the failure of his baseball career, Troy lashes out at the world, thinking it cruel and unfair. He resorts to drinking and has an incredible bitterness towards his status as a black man, thinking it the reason behind his lack of success at life. At the same time, he is prone to exaggeration; he often upscales his own feats, preferring to participate in his own particular version of his life, in which he had a good run before age caught up with him. In addition to that, he actively discourages those he knows from pursuing their own American Dreams – Cory wants to play football when he goes to college, but Troy scolds him, reminding him of his own baseball days. When Lyons wants to be a musician, Troy discourages that as well, not wanting any of his children to take chances as he had. In his eyes, it only invites failure; his view of the American Dream was soured and made cynical by his experiences.
In conclusion, the protagonists of Fences and "Cathedral" experience challenges to the way they think the world works. The narrator in “Cathedral” learns about other people just as much as himself through his interactions with Robert; he realizes that he does not know his wife as well as he should, and that Robert is a much more well-equipped man under the surface than he. What’s more, the ambiguity of the possibility of change within the narrator’s character lends it a relatable, hopeful response. In short, Carver uses these discoveries about sight to inspire rather than warn, and as such it has a constructive effect on the audience. On the other hand, Troy in Fences uses his failures as a justification for his own poor behavior, choosing instead to take out his own anxieties on his family. Refusing to see the light as the narrator of "Cathedral" has, Troy ends up dying with much of his family hating him, a life full of unfulfilled dreams.
Works Cited
Broyard, Anatole. "Diffuse Regrets." Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 36. Ed. Daniel G. Marowski. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1986. 100.
Carver, Raymond. "Cathedral." Cathedral: stories. New York: Knopf :, 1983. 1. Print.
Facknitz, MAR. "" The Calm ", " A Small, Good Thing ", and " Cathedral " : Raymond Carver and the Rediscovery of Human Worth." Studies in Short Fiction 23.3 (1986): 287-296. `Print.
Johnson, Charles. "Writing That Will Be ‘Around for a Time’." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 55. Ed. Roger Marowski. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1989. 281.82.
Koprice, Susan. "Baseball as History and Myth in August Wilson's Fences." African American Review 40.2 (2006): 349-358. Print.
Wilson, August. Fences.
