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             The short story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, and the screen adaptation of that short story by Bruce R. Schwartz, also entitled Cathedral, project a sense of contradiction in their illustration of a man's spiritual ignorance and eventual spiritual awakening. The short story and the video both tell the story of a middle-aged man nicknamed "Bub," who has lived the most recent years of his life ignoring his wife and filling that unused time with his self-indulged liquor love and addiction. As his wife informs him that an old friend, a blind man, is coming to visit, Bub is forced into a situation where he must temporarily change his ways and create a comfortable aura with the man. This soon becomes a catalyst in his life. While both the short story and the video almost identically tell the story of Bub and the thoughts and situations he experiences, the two depictions present events in a different order, leading the viewer/reader into different moods about the tone. Additionally, in the short story, Carver gives much description about the individual past lives of Robert, the blind man, and Bub's wife, and also their past life together. Juxtaposed to this, in the video the development is not nearly as strong, resulting in less understanding of the situation and reactions of the characters. The short story is much more spiritual. Robert's explanations of his life and his effect on Bub are very evident while the video tends to leave out the strong sense of spirituality, and Bub's lack thereof for a time, thus leaving the reader unable to realize the impact of Robert on Bub.
             Carver and Schwartz both give readers/viewers the ingredients of the entire story. They both explain the characters, their encounters, and the effects of the encounters. They also both strongly describe the feelings of the characters. Schwartz, unfortunately, distorts the order of events and descriptions about the characters and settings.