Raymond Carver writes on human insecurities and more so the insecurities of family relationship, that of husband's jealousy and narrow vision of what it means to be blind. .
1. When does the husband show his insecurities as they entertain the Blind man Robert?
The story jumps into its main action as the wife prepares dinner and the narrator glibly suggests taking Robert bowling. She begs him to welcome Robert and chides him for having no friends, "period." She tells him that Robert's late wife was named Beulah, which he finds bizarre. He asks her if Beulah was "a Negro," which makes her angry but also leads her to share more of Robert's past. Beulah began reading for Robert the summer after she had left, and they were soon thereafter wed. After eight years of marriage, Beulah was diagnosed with cancer and died. He feels sorry for Beulah, "a woman who could go on day after day and never receive the smallest compliment from her beloved." He imagines her life as miserable.
