Vision is something that many people take for granted every day. Society only deals with the problem of blindness if it is the less fortunate. According to the Braille Institute, “every seven minutes in the United States, someone loses their sight, often as a result of the aging process” (1). Only two percent of legally blind people use a guide dog and thirty-five percent use a white cane. Blindness can be caused by different types of factors, including (in order) age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and age-related cataracts. (Braille1). However, being blind does not mean that a person is in complete darkness. Some people can see lights and shapes of objects, but the most important thing is that family and friends provide hope and encouragement. The last thing a person who has lost their sight wants is to lose their family and support, which would lead them to loneliness. Similarly, in the short story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, blindness is the key element of the story and shows in detail how the characters achieve this. The theme that Carver conveys in the short story is that of being able to see without seeing and is revealed through the characters, tone, and plot of the story. The story's theme of being able to see without seeing is revealed through the characters in the story. Cathedral." The husband is very judgmental, self-centered, and lacks knowledge about the blind. This is evident when he states, “My idea of ​​blindness came from movies. In movies, blind people move slowly and never laugh (1152 The husband is so quick to judge and thinks he already knows everything about blind people and how they are, so he makes it clear that he wasn't looking forward to the blind man being in). his house...... middle of paper ......d the blind experience and it was as if Robert was no longer the blind person in the house (Caldwell 3 As a result, this). shows him the path to better understand his own worth and heal from temporary wounds by experiencing the transcendent nature of life Works Cited Akers, Tim. Short Stories for Students 6 (1999): 1-2. Literary Resource Center. Web. November 16, 2010. Braille Institute: Empowering visually impaired people to live fulfilling lives. Braille Institute. 2010. Web. November 22. 2010 Caldwell, Tracey. “The “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver. » Literary content in short stories (2006): 1-8. Internet. November 5, 2010Carver, Raymond. Cathedral. Exploring literature: writing and arguing about fiction, poetry, theater and essays. Ed. Frank Madden. 4th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. 1151-61. Print