Hope For Me Yet

A story narrating the necessity to find meaning in the monotony of life, “The Cathedral” caused a number of different emotions in me. Raymond Carver does an excellent job of instilling a sense of pity in the reader for a character who has absolutely nothing special about his life. I reached the point where I was almost disgusted with the attitude of the narrator who disliked so many aspects of his life but did nothing about it. At the same time, it also touched on a fear that I have as I go through life. As humans we aspire to be great; those aspirations eat at us. What happens when that drive is worn down and we lose sight of the meaning in our lives? Even those who do the most spectacular things day-in and day-out, like a doctor or firefighter, fade in the repetition of their work. The narrator can’t even look at his wife without thinking of everything that is wrong with his relationship. He immediately stews over Robert’s influence on his wife’s life, commenting on their relationship, fuming about anything except his own jealousy. How can he let his self-loathing get to the point where he can’t even talk about it?

However Carver offers the narrator a light in the darkness, ironically from the man who is at the center of his disdain, Robert. In a unique scene, Robert offers the narrator a choice. Carver carefully constructs a transformation of the narrator that leaves him unaware of anything tangible, transcending the mishaps of his life to a clarity that Carver is careful not to explain. As the reader, I was left to infer what this new found understanding was. Spirituality lingered throughout this story, even acting as a catalyst in the climb to the narrator’s realization, but what the finally narrator felt was a sense of independence. He understood that, in spite of what his life had been previously, he had a choice to change. That recognition met the narrator like a cool breeze offering him a glimpse into another life, one that could be his; it gave him hope. It dawned on me that the narrator could never have changed his life before that moment. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the drive to change his life, rather he didn’t have the foresight to see how he could change it. Carver challenges the reader to find meaning in the potential for greatness, rather than the certainty that it will because life so rarely offers us any certainties.