Each of the four stories under discussion portrays an individual who is distanced from society. The most extreme form of estrangement takes place in The Stranger, which is in itself an exploration of an individual's failure to make the necessary social connections that give rise to social order. In Raymond Carver's "Cathedral," we meet a man whose close-mindedness prevents him for realizing the human potential of others and his own potential for appreciating the world. John Cheever's "The Five-Forty-Eight" is an example of a man who has nothing but contempt for other human beings, holding himself above them as though he were better than them. Finally, "Hamlet" explores the descent into madness of a man who is afraid of the responsibility for uncovering an evil act.
In "Cathedral," Raymond Carver introduces us to "Bub," his wife, and a blind man, Robert. Carver seems to want to keep us removed from the characters we are reading about. "Bub" and his wife seem to serve more as "types" in the story than real, individual people. Bub's language seems to keep the relationships between himself and his wife and between his wife and the blind man separate from himself. His continued references to his wife as "she" rather than calling her by her name serve to distance himself and the reader from his wife as a real, individual person. He does the same with his references to the blind man.
However, Bub finally gives us the blind man's name when he seem to feel his first real emotion--pity--toward him (Carver 226). Although Bub still does not yet consider the blind man as an individual, his use of the man's name does indicate there may be a change in his attitude toward him. He begins to notice that Robert is just like any other man: "I watched with admiration as he used his knife and fork on the meat. . . . It didn't seem to bother him to use his fingers once in a while, either" (Carver 228).
The social situation in which B...