People often fear or ridicule what they do not understand; such is the case in this short story written by Raymond Carver. It is the story of a married couple where the wife has a blind friend (Robert) the husband (our narrator) has never met. His prejudices keep him in the dark; they make him blind to new things and hold him in a rut. Sometimes it takes a dramatic event, a revelation, to bring forth a change in our ways and thoughts. During the short visit to their home the husband has an enlightening experience and begins to understand, and eventually befriends the blind man. This occurs while the narrator is trying to describe a cathedral to Robert as he sees it from a late night television show, in the process he comes to understand what it must be like being blind. In the beginning the husband is apprehensive about the blind man coming into his home, because he has no idea what to expect. .
"I wasn't enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to" (448). .
The narrator did not want this blind man, Robert to interfere with his lifestyle even for just a few hours. .
The husband is uncertain of how to interact with the blind in general. This is shown in the sarcastic manner he exhibits to his wife prior to Robert's arrival.
"Maybe I could take him bowling," I said to my wife. She was at the draining board doing scalloped potatoes. She put down the knife she was using and turned around. .
"If you love me," she said, "you can do this for me. If you don't love me, okay. But if you had a friend, and the friend came to visit, I"d make him feel comfortable" (449). .
Not to mention the visitor's infirmity makes the husband uncomfortable, and possibly opens his mind to his own inadequacies.