Through color can an individual experience life in its full form. True color shows a perspective of the world where everything they see has more meaning outside of the obvious. Through the significance of looking versus seeing, can people be filtered out from the monotone black and white, to the optimistic colorful mix. Human interaction being the making of a bond through methods of feeling and emotion is vital for individuals to live a happy and open life. Open being understanding, like the blind man in the short story, Cathedral, written by Raymond Carver. The act of seeing in Cathedral is linked to physical eyesight, yet seeing involves a higher level of engagement. The storyteller/narrator demonstrates that he has complete vision. When the narrator arrives, he looks at his house and wife, as well as at the blind man. Because the narrator has working eyesight, he assumes that he is higher and stronger wiser than the blind man, whose name is Robert. The narrator claims that Robert’s eyesight prevents him from being able to make a lady like his wife content, let alone live a regular life. The wife’s husband is convinced that vision is everything, and he makes no effort to perceive anything beyond the surface.
This explains why he doesn’t really know his wife. Robert, in comparison, has a much deeper meaning to the use of seeing even with the conflict of not physically being able to. Robert better understands the narrator’s wife despite the fact that he has never seen her. This is because he has a greater sense of value and understanding of life. The irony of the short story reflects on how even people with eye sight or understanding may not be able to get a full grasp of what’s going on whereas people who may not be as privileged will because they don’t assume like the ones before. The narrator reflects a man of monotony as the story reflects that he has no meaning in life and judges a person based on physical characteristics. Reflecting on more relatable examples, this individual is the one who goes about their day with no emotional status, leading them to become dull and bland. On the other hand an individual like Robert is one that senses emotion through personality traits and seeks to find a person’s true self through in depth relationship building and creating strong bonds.
Reflecting on my personal history I feel that I have been on both sides of the story. There was a time where because of my constant low grades and inability to do work I dug myself a rabbit hole where I would not put in effort for human interaction or school work because I couldn’t see a reason to do so. At this time everyone around me felt like shadows moving around, going about their lives. I was like a stop sign where all my friends would go about passing me while checking in once or twice even if I wouldn’t reply. This posed a great conflict because at that stage I was not able to do anything with my life. My light through that dark tunnel were my close friends as they reminded me how life was once colorful. They were as significant as the blind man in the short story as they led to my awakening and getting my life back on track. Now I can successfully go about my business and keep a great circle while also doing good in school because I know that the impossible is only as impossible as I make it. This bump in my life taught me a great lesson that sometimes one must pretend to be blind to truly see what the full picture is. This short story reflects how the difference in looking and seeing can play the greatest factor in an individual’s personality and therefore life itself.