There is very little dispute that the end of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” is satisfying. We like to see someone who has issues we dislike change into someone better, and it is heavily implied that at the end of the story the narrator undergoes such a change. However, the narrator also has been drinking heavily and using marijuana. As we know, drugs can alter emotions and attitudes–sometimes for the worse, but also sometimes for the better. Write a paper arguing whether or not the change the narrator undergoes at the end of the story is a genuine change, or if it is only temporary due to the intoxicants he consumed throughout the evening.
