“Cathedral” is a short story written by Raymond Carver. In the story, the narrator finds an injured cat in his yard and takes it inside to take care of it while his wife is away. The next day, he finds that there is a dead rat in his kitchen sink, which leads him to a large hole in which the cat had been living. He continues to find more dead rats in the house, but when he finds a live one, he traps it and takes it outside. The next day there is a tree trunk in his living room and a large rock on top of it.
A few days later, while drinking with his brother-in-law at the train station where the brother-in-law works, the narrator contemplates how to tell his wife about everything that has happened. His brother-in-law suggests he make something up rather than telling her what really happened. They return home together, where they discover an old man hauling away their car with a tractor attached to it because they failed to make payments on it for eight months. After his brother-in-law leaves, the narrator calls a tow truck for his car and discovers he has no money to pay the tow truck driver.
While waiting for the tow truck, he finds an envelope with several thousand dollars in it that he had been keeping in a dresser drawer. He uses all of the money to get his car back and returns home with “the Cathedral” (which is assumed to be a large amount of heroin). The Cathedral puts him into such a deep sleep that when he wakes up two days later, everything has returned to normal: there are no more holes in walls, and no rats or cats in sight, and neither does he find any dead rats outside. The Cathedral is probably referring to either heroin or cash.
Carver was known to use both and the Cathedral in this story might be a metaphor for either one of them or even both at the same time. The “Cathedral” is the name of a short story by Raymond Carver. In the story, an unnamed couple finds an injured cat in their yard and takes it into their home while their wife is away on vacation. The next day they find that there’s a dead rat in their kitchen sink, which leads them to finding where the cat had been living: a large hole under their house. They continue finding more dead rats but when they discover one alive, they trap it and take it outside.
A few days later there’s an extra large tree trunk placed in their living room and a large rock on top of it. Some days later while drinking with his brother-in-law at the train station where he works, the husband contemplates how to tell his wife about all that has happened. His brother-in-law suggests making something up rather than telling her what really happened. They return home together where they discover an old man hauling away their car with a tractor because they had not made payments in eight months.
The Cathedral is probably referring either to heroin or cash (which Carver was known to use). Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon in 1938 but raised mostly by his grandparents in Washington. He dropped out of school at fifteen after meeting author John Gardner who worked as a junior high school teacher at the time. In 1961 he began working as a janitor at a local college where his first short stories were published in The Spectator, the college newspaper. He worked odd jobs for most of his life and was married six times to four different women.
Carver struggled with alcoholism and cancer before dying from lung cancer in 1988 at the age of 50. Carver’s Cathedral is about an unnamed couple who finds an injured cat in their yard and takes it into their home while their wife is away on vacation. The next day they find that there’s a dead rat in their kitchen sink, which leads them to finding where the cat had been living: a large hole under their house. They continue finding more dead rats but when they discover one alive, they trap it and take it outside.
A few days later there’s an extra large tree trunk placed in their living room and a large rock on top of it. Some days later while drinking with his brother-in-law at the train station where he works, the husband contemplates how to tell his wife about everything that has happened. His brother-in-law suggests making something up rather than telling her what really happened. They return home together where they discover an old man hauling away their car with a tractor because they had not made payments in eight months.
The Cathedral by Raymond Carver begins with a man and his wife drinking their morning coffee in silence before going about their separate days. In the course of one small moment, the story is opened up to reveal the larger world around them.
The Cathedral tells a story of a couple who have been married for many years. The two drink their morning coffee very early in the day, while they sit across from each other at a table in an apartment. The husband smokes cigarettes throughout most of the story, while the wife drinks her coffee without sugar or cream.
With each passing paragraph, details are gradually revealed that paint a picture of intimacy between these two characters that contrasts with their silence. It becomes apparent that they have been married for some time when it is noted that the wife has not bothered to change out of her nightgown. After she asks if he is coming back for lunch, the husband replies with only “I don’t think so,” and then stands up, kisses her forehead, and leaves.
The Cathedral by Raymond Carver was first published in Cathedral (1986) . It is included in Short Cuts (1993) , a collection of some of Carver’s work published after his death.