When defining the word blindness, it can be interpreted in various ways. Either it can be explained as sightless, or it can be carefully deciphered as having a more complex in-depth analysis. In the novel Blindness, Jose Saramago depicts and demonstrates how in an instant your right to see can be taken in an instant. However, in this novel, blindness is metaphorically related to ‘seeing’ the truth beyond our own bias opinions.
Saramago’s novel clearly illustrates themes that describe the importance of the awareness of others, in terms of feeling oppressed by fear, lack of trust, dehumanization, and segregation. He describes in full detail the importance of the government’s involvement in the lives of the blind victims, which allows the reader to understand and recognize our own societal misfortunes in health care, as well as other world problems. For example, our government allows Hispanic women to be eligible for “Medicaid or state-sponsored child health insurance programs, yet many Hispanic American families fear that enrolling family members in such plans could be used against them when they apply for citizenship” (Minority Women’s Health). Not only are Hispanic Americans afraid of getting ill while without health care, but they also fear that having health insurance could devastate their chances of acquiring a citizenship. Moreover, the government is obviously not seeing the pain and suffering through the eyes of the less fortunate, and in turn robs them of their freedom and vulnerability for being in a lower class.
In Saramago’s novel, the government’s commands, instant decisions, and fears about the blind epidemic is what the blind infected, vulnerable characters are terrified about the most. “Look here, blind man, let me tell you something, either the two of you get back to where you came from, or you’ll be shot […] they’re terrified and are only obeying orders” (63). With a large number of people going blind quickly and with no apparent cause, public health officials’ panic and the blind internees are not only afraid for their lives in terms of their sickness, but they are also terrified of the government’s command to shoot and kill the infected internees. The most important things in life is not power and the ability to instill fear on others, it is compassion, love, and understanding. Without these three qualities, we become blind t...
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...and can be set aside, has an absurd psychological way of thinking. People should not devalue others’ because they are “weaker,” or “different” from him/her.
“Fear can cause blindness, said the girl with the dark glasses, Never a truer word, that could not be truer, we were already blind the moment we turned blind, fear struck us blind, fear will keep us blind” (Saramago 129). In today’s society, people are more concerned with their own “little world,” rather than looking at the extensive perspective of life. One reason why people can sometimes be classified as being “blind” is because people fear the unknown, and rejects the unfamiliar. Many people are not comfortable with stepping out of their shell and exploring their surroundings, let alone trying to look through the eyes of the segregated minority. In the novel Blindness, Jose Saramago metaphorically uses the word “blindness” as a term meaning, the truth that we cannot bear to see. To avoid the outside world, many people tend to shelter themselves from the obvious reality, and tend to focus of their “own” meaning of reality. However, when our vision is stripped from our secluded selves, reality is all you can truly “see.”
In the short story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, the narrator, Bub, is as metaphorically blind as his guest, Robert, is literally blind. Bub has many unwarranted misconceptions about life, blind people in particular. He also has many insecurities that prevent him from getting too close to people. Through his interaction with Robert, Bub is able to open his mind and let go of his self-doubt for a moment and see the world in a different light.
Instead of loving and caring for her baby, and forgetting about Danny, she became worse than him. Rodriguez presents many aspects of the minority class that live in the United States, specifically the South Bronx. Even though the cases presented in Rodriguez’s short stories are difficult to mellow with, they are a reality that is constant in many lives. Everyday someone goes through life suffering, due to lack of responsibility, lack of knowledge, submission to another entity or just lack of wanting to have a better life. People that go through these situations are people who have not finished studying, so they have fewer opportunities in life.
In the short story Cathedral, by Raymond Carver, there is a direct contrast between a blind man named Robert, and the narrator. The narrator has full use of his senses, and yet he is limited to the way he sees things, and the way he thinks. Robert however, has a very different outlook on life and how he sees things, as well as the use of his senses. At the end of the story, Robert has the narrator close his eyes to try and get him to experience the world the way he does. The narrator ends up being able to not only see the way Robert does, but he also is able to feel the world in a completely different way. The author suggests that the mind is most important in how people view things, and the judgements we make are based on what we see in our heads, instead of what is really there.
Douglas Baynton’s “Disability and the Justification of Inequality in American History” details the myriad ways disability has been applied to marginalized groups, especially racial and/or ethnic minorities and women, to justify unequal treatment and “as a marker of hierarchical relations” (Baynton 34). In Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions, one of the primary hierarchies portrayed is between the white, English-speaking colonists and missionaries who live almost exclusively on the mission and in large cities, and the indigenous Rhodesian (now Zimbabwean), Shona-speaking people. Given that disability is often used as a metaphor or marker in any social hierarchy, the relationship between the white colonists and the indigenous Rhodesians is
Invisibility serves as a large umbrella from which other critical discussion, including that of sight, stems. Sight and Invisibility are interconnected when viewing Invisible Man. Essentially, it is because of the lack of sight exhibited by the narrator, that he is considered invisible. Author Alice Bloch’s article published in The English Journal, is a brief yet intricate exploration of the theme of sight in Ellison’s Invisible Man. By interpreting some of the signifying imagery, (i.e. the statue on campus, Reverend Bledsoe’s blindness, Brother Jack’s false eye) within the novel, Bloch vividly portrays how sight is a major part of Ellison’s text. The author contends that Ellison’s protagonist possesses sightfulness which he is unaware of until the end of the book; however, once aware, he tries to live more insightfully by coming out of his hole to shed his invisibility and expose the white man’s subjugation. What is interesting in Bloch’s article is how she uses the imagery of sight in the novel as a means to display how it is equated to invisibility
Although, it is obvious throughout the story, that the Narrators views of blind people has changed, -
Montoya, Margret E. "Masks and Identify," and "Masks and Resistance," in The Latino/a Condition: A Critical Reader New York: New York University Press, 1998.
As a handicap, there are extra struggles that Kleege must face while trying to broaden the narrow-mindedness of people in today's society. When people have a handicap, they are seen as weak and inferior. The blind must try to escape the negative stereotypes that are often associated with them. Kleege acknowledges that people believe, "Blind means darkness, dependence, destitution, despair. Blind means the beggar in the subway station" (395). She tries to help others understand that her condition is not one of despair but one of hope, as "blindness does not in itself constitute helplessness. You will be as resourceful, capable, and intelligent as you ever were" (403). Kleege tries to make clear to others that her condition is not the end of her life, but the start of one with more difficulty. There are also stereotypes of uncleanliness and unawareness of those without vision, as well as an idea that the blind are less intelligent. Even though there are many who do fall into the stereotype, there are also in...
As Gladwell writes about a physical environments context promoting certain behaviors, he mentions “…the streets we walk down, the people we encounter- play a huge role in shaping who we are and how we act” (162). By this, Gladwell presents how the environment surrounding a person makes that individual’s character shift as they have to fall into the mainstream way of life. No matter their background or internal mentality, the environments context surrounding that person will have a major influence on the overall behavior they portray. Sacks places an argument against Gladwell by stating that actions are dependent on the mentality of an individual. Sacks does not concur with Gladwell since he tries to teach his readers how the blind live based on their own mental perceptions. Sacks uses John Hull as a reference, who felt that “the loss of visual imagery was a prerequisite for the full development, the heightening, of his other senses” (339). Hull used his other senses to control his behavior, and it therefore shaped him into who he is today. The blind are not able to use the context of their everyday environment to influence the behavior they portray. As Sacks and Gladwell take two different sides, Nafisi is able to discuss both
Vision is something many people take for granted every day. Society only deals with the matter of being blind if they are the less fortunate ones. According to the Braille Institute, "every seven minutes a person in the United States loses their sight, often as part of the aging process" (1). Only two percent of legally blind people use a guide dog and thirty-five percent use a white cane. Blindness can be caused from various different types of things including (in order) age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and age-related cataracts. (Braille 1). However being blind does not mean a person is in total darkness. Some people can see lights and the shapes of objects, but the most import thing is for family and friends to provide hope and encouragement. The last thing a person who has lost their sight wants is to lose their family and support, which will led to loneliness. Likewise, in the short story "Cathedral," by Raymond Carver's, blindness is the key element in the story and shows in detail how the characters manage it. The theme Carver conveys in the short story is being able to see without sight and is revealed through the characters, tone and plot of the story.
A man by the name is Niccolò Machiavelli once said, “Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.” In this he meant Having eyes but not all mean have the gift to se things and situations for what they really are. Having sight does not refer to being able to see with both eyes but being able to separate thoughts and make accurate judgment. What meets the eyes is not always what is the true meaning of the subject at hand. In the Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, the main character is constantly approached with situations that have deeper meaning that what meets the eye. In the Invisible Man, the main character witnesses’ things and important facts of things and people but is unable to construct a deeper meaning. The main character lived during the 1930’s and was born in the south then later continues most of his life living in Harlem, New York. 1930’s were difficult times for African Americans and while leaning on his grandfathers last words while on his death bed, in which he said, "Son, after I'm gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy's country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion's mouth. I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open."(16). The narrator carried on his life in the south and after leaving the south to go to Harlem with his grandfather dyeing words in heart. He could not understand his grandfather due to lack of knowledge and experience in the real world. The main character lack of...
The moment you are infected with a disease, you are label by the many imaginations of society. These imagination are not only creative and limitless in culture, but they ultimately create a division between normal and abnormal. In the novel illness as Metaphor, the American author Susan Sontag critiques how speaking disease metaphorically has many consequences by leading to the stigmatization of a disease beyond its scientific condition. Sontag teaches us that stigmatization of disease causes society to become counterproductive by developing an unfair bias when talking about disease and those afflicted with the disease. In particular, the way society discuss blindness based on metaphors create negative stereotypes of blindness and people afflicted with blindness, which by extension makes society counterproductive in understanding
The story of Blindness by José Saramago signifies ignorance that can form in human communities and its harmful effects. This ignorance exhibits itself throughout the story in the fragility of societal organization, such as through the government’s attempt to quarantine the blindness, only to have the entire city succumb to the disease. This shows that the organizations in charge demonstrate ignorance by acting without knowing the full implications of a crisis.
People can be “blinded” to the truth. The answer to their question or solution to their problem may have been obvious. Yet, they could not "see" the answer. They were blinded to the truth. Associations have been made between being blind and enlightened. A blind person is said to have powers to see invisible things. They "see" into the future. The blind may not have physical sight, but they have another kind of vision. In Sophocles' King Oedipus, Teiresias, the blind prophet, presents the truth to King Oedipus and Jocasta. Oedipus has been blinded to the truth his whole life. When he does find the truth, he loses his physical vision. Because of the truth, Oedipus blinds himself. Jocasta was blind to the true identity of Oedipus. Even when she found out the truth, she refused to accept it. In this case, those who are blind ultimately do have a higher vision - the truth.
H. G. Wells uses ethnocentrism as a strong device in the short story ‘The Country of the Blind’ to generate the central conflict and to convey the theme: the perils of that deadly combination of stubbornness and blindness. The people of the country of the blind have been isolated from the outside world for fifteen generations, making it hard for them to easily accept the truth and facts about the real world. An accidental fall while climbing a mountain leaves Nunez stuck in a valley, which turns out to be the country of the blind. Nunez, the seeing protagonist, after discovering the citizens are ‘blind’, expects this to be an adventure and eventually came up with an idea to be the king, since he can ‘see’. The idea of ruling the country of the blind evokes the ethnocentrism within Nunez and the blind people. Both, Nunez and the blind people refuse to accept new beliefs and values at first. But as compilations built up, Nunez accepts the way of life and traditions but not the beliefs.