I read this short story last year in my creative writing class with Jesse and I remembered it vividly when I first saw the title. There was something so intriguing about the characters. They truly sell the whole story, without them it would be rather lackluster. The narrator is arrogant and cocky. He is unsettled by the thought of Robert being in his house, like the thought of an unknown, disabled man appalls him. He was such a sharp contrast compared to his wife and Robert, yet the blind man never snaps nor holds him accountable for his standoffish attitude. There’s something about the mysteriousness behind the narrator and his life that isn’t explained compared to the others that makes you question his attitude in the beginning and the end. It keeps the short story intriguing and the reader interested until the end, well at least for me anyway. Then the use of the cathedral as the bonding moment between the narrator and Robert while the wife is sleeping. It gives the theme that things are not as they appear as they blindly draw the cathedral. The narrator’s lack of using descriptive words to describe something he has the ability to see is quite concerning. It’s almost as if Raymond wanted to bring attention to the ability of seeing without actual sight. The most interesting part about this piece is there are so many hidden easter eggs and potential themes throughout that you have to dig a little deeper when reading.
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