View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where does the blind man put his hand as the narrator begins to draw in the story?
(a) Over the narrator’s hand
(b) At the edge of the table
(c) On the narrator’s face
(d) On the paper

2. The narrator asks the blind man while they watch TV if he knows the difference between a cathedral and what?
(a) An Islamic mosque
(b) A Jewish synagogue
(c) A Baptist church
(d) A Catholic church

3. What is the first thing the narrator says he draws in his attempt to recreate a cathedral for the blind man?
(a) A tent of some kind
(b) A rickety old shack
(c) A barn-like structure
(d) A box that looked like a house

4. Where is Travis A.F.B. located?
(a) Kansas
(b) California
(c) Georgia
(d) New Jersey

5. When the narrator changes the television channel, he says there is something about the Church and what era on?
(a) The Industrial Revolution
(b) The Middle Ages
(c) The Computer Age
(d) The Stone Age

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator say that he, his wife, and the blind man did after scarfing down their dinner in the story?

2. How does the narrator describe the physicality of the blind man after his arrival?

3. The blind man discusses his ham radio operator friends in “Guam, in the Philippines, in Alaska, and even” where?

4. How is the narrator’s viewpoint of blind people characterized in the beginning of the story?

5. When does the narrator say his wife was to marry her fiancé when she worked for the blind man?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator’s wife describe Robert’s marriage prior to his arrival in the story?

2. How does the narrator’s wife respond to the marijuana downstairs when she returns?

3. How is the beginning of the television show about the church described?

4. What do the narrator and Robert say in their discussion of religion in the story?

5. What is signified by the narrator’s final lines in the story?

6. How are the narrator’s perceptions of race illustrated in “Cathedral”?

7. Which of the characters in the story stands out from the theme of alienation? Why?

8. What role does alcoholism play in “Cathedral”?

9. How is the theme of transformation illustrated through the narrator’s wife in the story? When did her “transformation” take place with the blind man?

10. What conversation does the narrator have with Robert regarding alcohol after Robert’s arrival?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 925 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample