The thesis of this article by Chris J. Bullock is that Craver uses the metaphor of architecture to comment on the nature of masculinity. Beginning with Freud's conception of the ego, Bullock argues that the narrator in Carver's story conceives of his ego as a kind of castle or stronghold. This is implied by the narrator's living room, his "castle," but also by the form of the narrative itself. This first person narrator is very guarded about what he reveals about himself. Bullock argues that what the the narrator's ego/castle is keeping out is the feminine, represented by the wife's connection to the blind man, and the drawing the narrator does of the cathedral. Where the castle is a closed structure, the cathedral is open; when the narrator draws for the blind man, he is emerging from the "castle" of his male ego and tentatively embracing his feminine side. In a sense, the drawing of the cathedral is a kind of reimagining or blueprint for a new kind of masculinity, one based on empathy and a connection to the "inner" feminine.