In Jorge Luis Borges’s essay, “Blindness”, the author writes to teach how blindness can be seen as an opportunity and not a curse. Though his primary audience is people that share his connection, his secondary audience could be seen as those who judge blindness to be a disability. His purpose is to prove wrong stereotypes and show his first hand experience about blindness. Borges does this by rooting out to his own and family history and lessons that he learned about his blindness. The prevailing tone is a transition from sadness toward strength and happiness. Throughout his essay, Borges shows that blindness can be seen as another way of living life to the fullest, even though he has a disability that doesn’t allow him to see. He sees this as another lifestyle. He says that, “ Blindness has not been for me a total misfortune; it should not be seen in a pathetic way. It should be seen as a way of life: one of the styles of living.” He doesn’t allow blindness to limit him in any way possible, instead he says that there are more …show more content…
What Borges tries to prove is that it’s not really a disability to all that doubt blindness. Borges says, “ I owe to the darkness some gifts: the gift of Anglo-Saxon, my limited knowledge of Icelandic, the joy of so many lines of poetry, of so many poems, and of having written another book entitled, with a certain falsehood, with a certain arrogance, In Paris of Darkness.” He is blind but, he never let blindness limit of what he can do. He is writer, he READS poems even though he is blind, he is a librarian, he was a professor, what was seen as something that he could never do, he dedicated lots of his life to and has proven it with all that he has accomplished. Borges is infact questioning what it meant to be blind. He has done this with all that he did to define what it meant to be a everyday person with the disability of being
Uncle Jim, and Erik Weihenmayer both are not born blind, but are both able to overcome their blindness to live life to the fullest extent. Both protagonists in the story share similar qualities, and traits to one, and another like being resilient, perseverance, determination, and a little bit of stubbornness to keep going, and never allow their blindness to dictate how they are able to live, but instead they are the ones who dictate how they want to live. Both stories showcase brilliant characters that were able to overcome their shortcomings which led to the betterment of their prospective
In the beginning of the story “Cathedral”, the narrator is unhappy that Robert will be coming to visit him and his wife because he discriminates those who are blind. Before Robert comes over, the narrator admits that Robert “being blind bothered him” and that his “idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the ...
His, "idea of blindness came from the movies", where, "...the blind move slowly and never laughed" (Carver 98). These misconceptions of blindness form barriers between the blind and the sighted. Carver breaks down these barriers as he brings the vastly different lives of these two men together. Those of us with sight find it difficult to identify with the blind. This man, like most of us, can only try to imagine what life is like for Robert.
The limitations that were holding the narrator back were abolished through a process from which a blind man, in some sense, cured a physically healthy man. The blind man cured the narrator of these limitations, and opened him up to a whole world of new possibilities. Robert enabled the narrator to view the world in a whole new way, a way without the heavy weights of prejudice, jealousy, and insecurity holding him down. The blind man shows the narrator how to see.
In literature, blindness serves a general significant meaning of the absence of knowledge and insight. In life, physical blindness usually represents an inability or handicap, and those people afflicted with it are pitied. The act of being blind can set limitations on the human mind, thus causing their perception of reality to dramatically change in ways that can cause fear, personal insecurities, and eternal isolation. However, “Cathedral” utilizes blindness as an opportunity to expand outside those limits and exceed boundaries that can produce a compelling, internal change within an individual’s life. Those who have the ability of sight are able to examine and interpret their surroundings differently than those who are physically unable to see. Carver suggests an idea that sight and blindness offer two different perceptions of reality that can challenge and ultimately teach an individual to appreciate the powerful significance of truly seeing without seeing. Therefore, Raymond Carver passionately emphasizes a message that introduces blindness as not a setback, but a valuable gift that can offer a lesson of appreciation and acceptance toward viewing the world in a more open-minded perspective.
Not seeing equates to not being able to truly understand and experience the beauty of life. Just knowing that the blind man had a wife who he?lived, worked, slept [with]?had sex?and then bur[ied]. All without having ever seen what the goddamn woman looked like. baffles the narrator (722). It [is] beyond [his] understanding.
The husband in Raymond Carvers “Cathedral” wasn’t enthusiastic about his wife’s old friend, whom was a blind man coming over to spend the night with them. His wife had kept in touch with the blind man since she worked for him in Seattle years ago. He didn’t know the blind man; he only heard tapes and stories about him. The man being blind bothered him, “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. (Carver 137)” The husband doesn’t suspect his ideas of blind people to be anything else. The husband is already judging what the blind man will be like without even getting to actually know him. It seems he has judged too soon as his ideas of the blind man change and he gets a better understanding of not only the blind man, but his self as well.
Many people view blindness as a disability, but could these people be blind to their surroundings? Even though the narrator can perfectly see with his eyes, he lacks in understanding awareness. The narrator blindness isn 't physical, like many vision impaired people. His blindness is psychological, and his blindness causes him to become jealous. His blindness blocks his perception of viewing the world in a different way. This only causes him to see the physical attributes of humans, and thus shut off his mindfulness of viewing human personalities. As a result of a closed mind, the narrator doesn 't understand how Robert was able to live with the fact that he was never able to see his wife in the flesh, but the narrator fails to see that Robert vision of his wife was intimate. On the other hand, Robert blindness is physical. This causes Robert to experience the world in a unique manner. Without Robert eyesight, he is able to have a glimpse of a human personality. He uses his disability to paint pictures in his head to experience the world. By putting his psychological blindness aside, the narrator is able to bond with Robert, and he grasps the understanding of opening his eyes for the first time, and this forms a new beginning of a
Sight is not only to have a visual image of one’s environment and reality, but to be aware of all connections and use them to have the most broad and open perception. In his essay, Sacks suggests that sighted individuals are blind to reality because people tend to ignore connections within themselves, relying heavily on others. By ignoring these connections, a limited perception is developed, an interpreted reality that does not use all the senses at one’s disposal. With blindness, Sacks describes how these individuals have a more open and enriched reality and environment because they utilize all of the senses. By doing so, “Dennis...had increased his sensitivity to moods in other people, and to the most delicate nuances in their speech and self-expression… He felt he had become far more sensitive to others’ emotional states since losing his sight, for he was no longer taken in by visual appearances, which most people learn to camouflage” (8). Perception is an interpreted reality, but by having literal sight is not to have sight to every aspect and detail of one’s environment. Not using all connections builds an inaccurate reality, an environment that is not truly seen and is brought upon by self-deception. To not see reality, or have perception, is to not see the world and environment at all. Yet it is still possible to share perceptions with someone else, and to become enriched perceptually by another person’s
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.
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.
...taphorical Beer-goggles. We believe what we want to believe. We accept what is comfortable as is, and anything else we disregard as false and or imaginary. Borges' stories are masterfully written to capture this particular aspect of the human character. whether it be a simple defense mechanism, a genius cerebral accomplishment passed down through evolution, or our greatest weakness, a self-induced, self-created mental heroin, or an odd combination of the three, it reflects our dreams, and gives us a sense of reality acceptable to us. And, thus, we can move in this world each day, we get out of bed, dress ourselves, carry on what is now a pathetic excuse for existence, because we have those dreams, that will come true, that will bring satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment. What privilege we have, to, at any time, be able to substitute our Hell for our Heaven...
In Oedipus the King, Sophocles uses Oedipus and various other characters to convey the theme of blindness. King Oedipus ruled over Thebes, after solving the Sphinx’s riddle. After Oedipus is victorious over the sphinx, Oedipus becomes swollen with hubris leading into his figurative and literal blindness throughout the book. The author, Sophocles uses a blind seer to convey the sense that a physically blind man can know more about the issues concerning Thebes over their respected rulers Oedipus, and Jocasta who were not physically blind like the blind seer. Oedipus was not only just blind to the issues concerning Thebes he was blind to almost everything else. Then when the truth comes out blindness is even emphasized more with Oedipus blinding his self physically. His hubris is caused by many things one may be him thinking he has evaded his cursed prophecy, and even having his own townspeople pray to him as if he were one of the God’s. Blindness in Oedipus Rex was both literal and figurative. People can be physically blind as well as be blinded by the truth figuratively.
In conclusion, Borges support his themes with examples of different people’s ideas and then revealing the flaws of these different groups. Also the pervasive tone of humility serve to bring the reader to the non-significant view that Borges thinks of humans; many people have guessed as to how the world works, but maybe they are wrong or maybe Borges is wrong too. In our fleeting moments on earth, we try to learn as much as we can but never succeed because of our ‘sense’ of what is true knowledge, our biological limitations on learning and the fact that we can’t be sure what knowledge is because we are finite.
When we are born, we can see but we cannot put anything into words. When we’re older we visualize. Visualization is the way we interact with the world. Dillard discusses how some people who have corrected and restored their sight from blindness are delighted with their sight. They see things as they really are in a way that those who always see things cannot. Like an object is seen in shape and color rather than in its name and purposes. Those that have not seen never take the beauty of sight for granted. Both Annie Dillard and John Berger agree that we cannot see clearly. Berger thinks it is because of external influences while Dillard thinks because nature and ignorance won’t let us.