The narrator of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” could certainly be described as an antihero, though this is not such a pejorative description as readers sometimes think. An antihero is merely a protagonist who lacks heroic qualities, as most people do. An antihero can still be a likeable and engaging narrator, perhaps more so than a traditional hero.

The narrator does display sensitivity early in the story. For one thing, he is aware of his own prejudices and does not try to defend them. He knows that his ideas about the blind come from the movies. He admits that perhaps the reason he was not impressed by his wife’s poem is simply that he doesn’t understand poetry and is rather ignorant about it. Moreover, he understands that his wife’s poems are an important part of her life, and does not criticize them when speaking to her. The detail with which he describes the background to his wife’s friendship with the blind man suggests that he listens carefully to his wife and wants to understand her. When she plays him the tape of the blind man talking about him, however, he is also sensitive enough to realize that he may not want to hear what this man, who has been privy to so many of his wife’s private thoughts, has to say about him.

Even the narrator’s insensitivity when he talks to his wife may be regarded as evidence that he is usually a more thoughtful person. His wife responds with absolute bemusement to the narrator’s rather churlish comments:

"Are you crazy?" my wife said. "Have you just flipped or something?" She picked up a potato. I saw it hit the floor, then roll under the stove. "What's wrong with you?" she said. “Are you drunk?”

This must surely suggest that she is not accustomed to hearing such comments from him. All these clues to his character make his eventual rapport with Robert seem like a natural development, despite his initial apprehensions and prejudices.

The narrator of "Cathedral" can be seen as an antihero since he lacks the traditional qualities of a hero but is still the protagonist and does change for the better throughout the story. He is not idealistic, particularly kind, or optimistic. However, he still comes around to see things in a positive way and is a positive influence in the visitor's life by the end of the story.

The narrator says he doesn't like that the man coming to visit is blind. He recognizes that his perception of blind people comes from popular media and that he imagines the man to be humorless and dull. He's clearly capable of examining his own motivations and of not expressing such insensitive thoughts to those around him.

One way the narrator's sensitivity is evident is that he doesn't tell his wife that he doesn't like the poem she values. He recognizes that it's important to her and is kind about it.

When he acts in a negative way in the hours before the visit, his wife acts as if it's out of character for him. This is another way the reader knows that he isn't usually a bad person and that he has the capacity for good. He's friendly to the man when he arrives and greets him in a kind manner. He also shares with him when he's drinking and preparing to smoke pot: the narrator reaches out to Robert despite his discomfort.

Once he makes peace with Robert's blindness and comes to know him as a person rather than just a blind man, he's more friendly to him. He's more willing to treat him as an individual. He works with him to draw the cathedral and to try to experience what it's like to see without using his eyes.

The first-person narrator of Raymond Carver's story conveys some sensitive qualities and also is somewhat willing to be critical of some of his less attractive personal traits. The fact that he admits to bring petty and jealous could be regarded as positive steps. He does show awareness, although largely in retrospect, to take his wife's feelings and preferences into account. Despite his jealousy, he agrees to have Robert as their guest and sits up late with him.

All of these small clues indicate that he might be on a path of personal development. The question of his having hero or anti-hero status is complex. If the reader regards his willingness to try a different way of comprehending the sensory world as a heroic attitude, then they might consider the character heroic. If they think he has more negative than positive qualities, they could also conclude that he is an anti-hero.

Yes. The narrator is close-minded, fearful, judgmental, prejudiced, possessive, and unfriendly, not to mention a substance abuser; these are not generally attributes viewed as heroic. That said, the narrator does have positive qualities, and most of his negative characteristics seem to come from a fear of being abandoned/alone and his frustration re: his inability to express himself. For instance, he obviously loves his wife. His seemingly callous reaction to her suicide attempt covers up his deep-seated fear of losing her. He seems to have based his whole life around her; he doesn't have friends, and he is so focused on her that he tells us much more about her past than his own. He is jealous of her first husband, and also of the blind man; the blind man has an intimate relationship with his wife and can communicate with her more more easily than the narrator can.

The narrator gets stoned and drunk. This inebriation allows him to let down some of his defenses so that he can help the blind man experience the cathedral; the wonderment that he feels seems to hint at an underlying urge to understand the world and to learn to communicate with and connect to other people. The cathedral itself (the most important symbol in the story) has various meanings. One of the things it represents is grace/redemption, and that's just what the narrator seems to want, whether he will admit it or not. All of these small details hint that he is more sensitive and loving than he may first appear.