Best of Week: Cathedral

In class this week, we discussed the apparently unsatisfying ending to the short story Cathedral.  The main character finishes the story with a rather bland line, despite him having an epiphany with a blind man in his house.  We talked about how this is particularly fitting for the story because the voice the story has been told with is bland, and thus it would be unfitting to have a miraculous finish to the story.

I agree with the conclusion we reached in class.  Despite the emotional and spiritual grandeur going on inside the main character, he deals with events in a matter-of-fact, blunt, and passive way.  To put together a creative speech that artfully depicts everything that's going on would rob the reader of everything the author had so strived to create in the main character.  So yes, maybe a really cool last line would be nice aesthetically, but the advantages pretty much stop there.  Although, in hindsight, the ending was like a short-sleeve magician; you can see what's coming.

I think that this has massive potential utility for me.  This is a wake-up call to check my story for consistency in voice.  Not only a coherent plot-line, but also a voice that the reader can follow and that adds meaning to the story.  Even if I forget the details of what happens in Cathedral (I probably will), the message will stay with me for a considerably longer time.