OPTION #3
When reading the first paragraph of Cathedral, I immediately, I do not know why, thought about Gerry and Cookie’s visit to her ex-boyfriends house. I said to myself, “uh- oh” and imagined something like a hidden love line between his wife and the blind man. I guess because I had this perception of their relationship, I have no clue what went on and how he ended up understanding the blind man but, the blind man’s visit really made me think of Gerry’s attitude when they visited I believe, Mark’s house.
I remember how Gerry did NOT like the idea of the visit and the narrator pretty much had the same idea. He did not like the idea at all. They were very pessimistic about it and very very jealous. One thing different about the husband and wife’s relationship between these two couples is that Cookie comforts Gerry while the wife in the story does not. When Gerry expressed his feelings towards the visit, Cookie replied something like “he’s the past and who’s my future? you are” while the narrator’s wife’s response seems to be like “you can’t do this for me? how could you? don’t you love me?” I don’t feel the love of the wife towards her husband, all I see is how excited she is for her “friend’s” visit and all her focus is on that.
However, one thing very similar in both situation is that only the wife and “long time boy-friend” gets along and is involved in the conversation. No matter how much Gerry and the narrator try to say something once in a while, it only makes the situation more awkward and uncomfortable. They both feel intimidated by their opponents thus very negative in their thinking and critical towards them. The narrator is consistently judging and stereotyping what the blind man is doing by using words like “pathetic, creepy, spiffy.” I felt that he was not a happy person and he was going to stay that way for a while until the blind man leaves the house but, I guess that’s not what happened because something about the cathedral conversation changed him and he now understands the blind man. Is life like that? One moment we are not happy and the weirdest and most random things make us happy the next moment?
As conclusion, honestly, I didn’t understand what happened or what kind of connection the blind man and the husband had when drawing the cathedral but, I’m pretty positive that the husband’s first feeling towards this situation was very like Gerry’s feelings when walking into his wife, Cookie’s ex-boyfriend’s house and I found this very interesting.
