This story was published in 1981, when life in America was vastly different than it is today. What are some of the differences between then and...

"Cathedral" is set in time before people had computers in their homes, the internet or cell phone. It's a time when people--or at least the narrator--hold more prejudices about disability and when people smoked cigarettes in the home. The narrator seems to perceive women largely as sex objects.

Some examples of these differences include the following:

Rather than communicate via the internet, Robert, the blind man, and the wife make tapes to stay in touch...

"Cathedral" is set in time before people had computers in their homes, the internet or cell phone. It's a time when people--or at least the narrator--hold more prejudices about disability and when people smoked cigarettes in the home. The narrator seems to perceive women largely as sex objects.

Some examples of these differences include the following:

Rather than communicate via the internet, Robert, the blind man, and the wife make tapes to stay in touch and mail them back and forth. 

The narrator recalls that his wife gets a job through an ad in the newspaper with a phone number to call.

Throughout the whole story, the narrator reveals how uncomfortable he is with disability. As he puts it:

In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeingeye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to.

Robert smokes in the house, where there's an ashtray to accommodate him. 

We learn that Robert has color and a black and white television set. Nobody today has a black and white television. Television is the predominate form of media.

The narrator is concerned that Robert could never see what his dead wife looked like or pay her compliment, as if the only important aspect of a woman is her appearance, and the only way to compliment a woman is on her looks, rather than her mind, spirit or personality. He also gets concerned that Robert will see his wife's meaty thigh, then remembers that the man is blind.

While it might be difficult to discern whether the attitudes toward the disabled and  women that the narrator expresses are his own or common in his society, the narrator is completely unself-conscious about holding them, suggesting they were ordinary ideas.