In both Doris Lessing’s “To Room Nineteen” and Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral”, the protagonists exhibit a kind of selfishness. Although they share this similarity, they present their selfishness in different ways, and ultimately make very different life decisions based upon this.
The Rawling family had “everything right, appropriate, and what everyone would wish for, if they could choose.” The husband and wife, Matthew and Susan, had a picture-perfect marriage, “…people to whom others came for advice.” Despite this, Susan felt a “certain flatness.” She was endlessly looking forward to the day when their twins would go off to school for the first time, and then all the children would be “off her hands.” When this day came, however, she then resented every moment when they were home, especially during the holidays. This eventually led her to spiral out of control, constantly in search of perfect solitude. Even while taking a walking holiday in Wales, she felt as though “the telephone wire [was] holding to her duty like a leash.” (p. 880). .” Abandoning her family altogether, she discovers a dingy hotel. In Room Nineteen she would sit in the armchair for hours, selfishly enjoying her solitude. “To Room Nineteen” ends as Susan commits the selfish act of suicide, deserting her family once and for all. The protagonist in “Cathedral” displayed clear ignorance throughout a large portion of the short story, and it was especially easy to focus on due to the author’s use of first person point of view. Despite this, the selfishness shown by the protagonist is presented less obviously than that of Susan in “To Room Nineteen”. He is not looking forward to when the blind man, an old friend of his wife’s, is coming to visit. He shows a very narrow understanding when he said “my idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to.” (p. 206). As soon as the blind man entered his home, the protagonist began to judge him and was quick to stereotype: “the blind man, feature this, he was wearing a full beard! A beard on a blind man! Too much, I say.” (p. 209). After his wife had fallen asleep, as he and the blind man watched TV together, they had a chance to interact on their own. The blind man asked him to describe what a cathedral was like, and after little success he then asked if they could draw one together. Drawing with his eyes closed, the protagonist says, “It was like nothing else in my life up to now” (p. 216), displaying how this moment completely changed his viewpoint. As they finish the drawing, he decides to keep his eyes shut, so that if only for a moment, he can attempt to understand the blind man. Throughout “To Room Nineteen” and “Cathedral”, the protagonists display selfishness in their own way. As they have this in common, there are a few differences in the way they approach this trait, which are very important to analyze. Susan in “To Room Nineteen”, is very obviously selfish throughout the entire story. She was in a constant search for solitude and distance from her family and her home, where she felt she was being tied down and torn away from the immense freedom she felt she deserved. In the end, her thoughtlessness led her to kill herself, committing the one last selfish step of her life. The protagonist in “Cathedral” however, showed a great deal of ignorance toward the blind man’s way of life, and selfishness toward his wife. He did not want his idea of a strange blind man entering his home, although after some time interacting with him on his own he realized the error in his ways and evidently changed his entire viewpoint. Although both protagonists are somewhat similar in their selfishness, the way they chose to handle their situations makes them quite different in the end.

Works Cited
Carver, Raymond. “Cathedral.” The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Comp. R.V. Cassill. 7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005, Print.
Lessing, Doris. “To Room Nineteen.” The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Comp. R.V. Cassill. 7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005, Print.