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2. I stared hard at the shot of the cathedral on the TV. How could I even begin to describe it? But say my life depended on it. Say my life was being threatened by an insane guy who said I had to do it or else.

This quotation appears near the end of the story when Robert asks the narrator to describe the cathedral that appears on television. Before this, the narrator has successfully described a parade in Spain in which people were dressed as devils and skeletons, but he doesn’t have any idea how to describe a cathedral. The task seems impossible for the narrator, who doesn’t have the words to describe what he sees. In a way, this is a crisis moment for the narrator, who realizes that he couldn’t describe a cathedral even if his “life depended on it.” The scenario he imagines—a crazy man forcing him to describe a cathedral—is absurd and comical but reflects his sense of panic. Even though he can see the cathedral, he can’t describe what he sees because he really doesn’t understand it. Only by drawing the cathedral with his eyes closed can the narrator bridge the gap between seeing and understanding.

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