The book is called: Blindness, but it's really not all about the physical blindness.
Well, in a way, yea... if it wasn't for the first man going blind at the traffic light then no one would notice their blindness to other aspects of their lives. The people go physically blind in the beginning and have to suffer. All along though, people have been blind in a way. They were blind to the privileges they had, blind to the comfort of their lives. They were blindly putting value on things monetarily that would later not matter a single bit to them. When the people lose their sight, and are put in the mental ward to be quarantined, this becomes more clear. There is blind hatred for the government; a faceless, nameless hatred. There was blind fear. Fear of the unknown and the dark, despite only seeing white.
Eyes and vision are used as motifs and symbols throughout literature. Blind characters often "see" beyond what other characters understand. They sense life differently. One of the characters in the novel, has been blind for years already, and this is to his advantage because he is well accustomed to not seeing, and getting around. What is different in this book than others about the symbolism of blindness, is that it is sudden and eye opening. The woman with the dark glasses is a character who goes blind early in the book. She went blind having sex with some random guy in a hotel room, and apparently is really really good looking. Her looks don't matter when everyone is blind though. It takes her to become blind to really understand that she's been blindly loving people. It's in the quarantine that she falls in love with an old man who has an eye-patch. At one point the old man points out that, if she could see and if she had never gone blind she would never love a man like him. This is where the importance of the blindness is very clear, because that is completely true. Now though, her love is real and not superficial.
''Why did we become blind, I don't know, perhaps one day we'll find out, Do you want me to tell you what I think, Yes, do, I don't think we did go blind, I think we are blind, Blind but seeing, Blind people who can see, but do not see.''
One of my favorite lines above. The dialog is vaguely separated by comas.
It's a great line, and an important one as it rings true for all of us at some point in our lives. You've nicely discussed some thematic ideas of the novel. Do you think that the benefits of their blindness outweigh the trauma and horror of their experience?
ReplyDeleteAlso, are those pictures from a film version? That is one movie I do not want to see.
Yea, those are pictures from the movie adaptation of the man with the eye patch and the girl with dark glasses. I think I'm going to watch the movie, and I'll post about it.
DeleteMy opinion on the benefits of the blindness; I think that Saramago used it as a symbol to show that the society was clearly lacking in what was really important. They found that they didn't need money when they were blind, or they didn't need jewelry and had no use of fancy cars. What they needed to live was relationships with people, love, and survival skills. People that weren't in the main group still had to work together to survive.
On the piece about it outweighing the trauma and horror, I think it's got to be different for different characters. I don't think the doctor's wife will ever recover from what she's seen and had to endure as a result of her not losing her sight, but I think people learned a value life lesson about what is really important.
Excellent journal entry Mad! Do you think the blindness epidemic as represented in the book is used to call attention to a problem in our own society, or is it specifically used to highlight the prevalence of superficiality in this book's society?
ReplyDeleteYes, I think that could be pretty clearly inferred. It is defiantly a theme in the book; how blindness can be devastating as well as eye opening. The author is from Portugal, and honestly I'm not up to date with my Portuguese modern society. However maybe he could be referring to the world society, and the problems we have with materialism, racism, sexism, and tons of other problems we face as a result to being closed minded and ignorant.
DeleteWhat a unique perspective to examine the book from! Blindness is not commonly viewed in a positive or beneficial light so it is interesting to read that the author of the novel is portraying in such a way. What do you think his intentions were behind that? Do you think that he or she is treating blindness as an advantage to mock or scold the present generation for frequently valuing vanity above moral? Overall great post and I loved the pictures - super easy to read!
ReplyDelete