Theme Of Heritage In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

In Cathedral, a short story written by Raymond Carver, the narrator seems to have a kind of dysfunctional type of relationship with his wife. The wife seems like a kind and emotional person while the narrator is kind of closed off emotionally. This differences can sometimes lead to small arguments like the one they had when he offered to take the blind man to bowling “God dam it, his wife just died! Don’t you understand that? The man just lost his wife! (Carver, 1983)”. Even though, the man is blind and lost his wife, the narrator seems a little careless about it. “Right there my wife filled me up with more details than I cared to know (Carver,1983)”. But after making the Cathedral with the blind man, is the moment when the narrator learns …show more content…
The quilts represent the family history because it contained a piece of their ancestors. Dee view the significance of the family’s heritage as something to show off, she believes that the quilts should be saved and displayed. She’s planning on to just hang them. “These are all pieces of dresses Grandma used to wear. She did all this stitching by hand. Imagine! (Walker, 1973)”. But then Maggie, in the other hand, would actually use them like any other practical quilt. Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts! She’d probably be backward enough to put them into everyday use (Walker, 1973)”. The mother ended up giving the quilts to Maggie because she probably recognized that if Dee would really appreciate family’s heritage like she says she dies, she wouldn’t change her own name that got from her ancestor (Big Dee) to another African name. Maybe she felt that Maggie would appreciate them better and not just hang them. “God knows I been saving em’ for long enough with nobody using them, I hope she will! (Walker,