The story is about a blind man who visits a married couple. He is an old friend of the wife, but the husband does not look forward to see the blind man (called Robert) because he does not know what to expect. He has never known any blind persons and his picture of these is based on a very little foundation. He has a lot of prejudices against Robert, but during his visit he changes his opinion about him. While watching TV together they get each other to know better and the husband finds out that he actually likes his company. They watch a program about cathedrals and while talking about cathedrals, Robert says that he does not even know how a cathedral looks like. The husband tries to explain what a cathedral is and how it is built, but Robert does not understand it. Therefore he suggests that they can draw one together. In that way Robert gets a picture of a cathedral in his mind and even though it is not as good as seeing it with his own eyes, it is good enough to give him an idea of what a cathedral is.
I also think that feeling sorry for people with handicaps is an important theme in this short story. When you see a person in a wheelchair many people automatically step to the side to let the person pass, open doors for him/her etc.. I think there is no reason to do this. I know that people do it to be friendly towards the person, they think his helpless, but the fact is that they can do much more than people think they can. It is very difficult for a disabled person to face the fact that they do not have the same possibilities as "normal" people to do what they want, and when they time after time are told (indirectly) that they are different it is difficult not to lose their courage.
Considering my statements above, I think that the writer, Raymond Carver wants to tell that even though some people are blind or handicapped, you have to accept them and treat them the same way as all other people you know. Compassion will rarely give any good results.
Compared to the story, I think the husband fears that he will lose all the a
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