Planet Of The Blind Analysis

People want to feel unique, but at the same time they do not want their differences to call negative attention to themselves. People can be made to feel isolated from others if they feel that they are different in a hindering way, such as having a disability. In Stephen Kuusisto’s Planet of the Blind, he uses allusions to convey to sighted readers the challenges and joys of being blind. In order to blend in with the crowd, Kuusisto attempts to hide his blindness. In doing this, he denies accepting himself and becomes lonely. Those who do know him cannot truly understand him because he does not express his vulnerability in being blind. Throughout his memoir, Kuusisto alludes to outcast characters, such as the creature in Frankenstein and Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, because his “disability” often leads him to feel as an outsider. In his attempt to fit in with friends by hiding his blindness, he is instead left feeling isolated and conveys this through his passion for literature.

Throughout his memoir, Kuusisto describes how his disability makes him feel alone. The disability itself is not what is causing him to feel isolated, but rather his refusal to accept his

disability and share it with others. Kuusisto’s refusal to accept himself stems from what he was taught as a child. Kuusisto’s parents treated his condition as if it were a burden and his mother was horrified when a social worker called her son “blind.” Because to his mother, “the prospect of [being blind] denotes the world of the invalid” (15). By avoiding speaking of his condition and forcing Kuusisto to do what “ordinary” children do such as riding bikes and attending a public school, Kuusisto’s parents conveyed that he should be ashamed of being blind. In essence, the parents buried Kuusisto’s condition which is why he felt that he needed to live his life pretending he could see.
Feeling ashamed of his blindness ultimately leads Kuusisto to feel ashamed of himself and leads him to make choices that are detrimental to his health.

Kuusisto’s belief that his blindness is a weakness is confirmed by bullies at school. In the hallways, Kuusisto explains that bullies would jeer, “Blindo! You gross fucker!” and “He fucks his sister!” (33). Kuusisto feels he cannot fit in with his peers and instead isolates himself in his attic where he uses food as his comfort. Kuusisto binges on food as a way to mask his pain. Eventually, the bullies labeled Kuusisto “Crisco” and “fat in a can” (33). These remarks, coupled with his parent’s inability to talk about his blindness, destroyed Kuusisto’s sense of self-worth. It is then that Kuusisto alludes to the creature in Mary Shelley’s

Frankenstein:
“I want only to escape into the dark once more. At night I sit in the heavy vigil of personal confinement. I eat alone in my room. In my obscure corner I brood over my ugliness. I am a green and distorted mass. My eyes dart about in my head. Who wouldn’t laugh? This is my face, blubbering, cross-eyed. Here come the villagers with their blazing torches, pursuing the Frankenstein monster to the ruined castle” (34).

Kuusisto wants to “escape” into solitude because he feels different from his peers. Through describing himself as “blubbering” and “crosss-eyed,” Kuusisto relates his sense of self to the outcast creature in Frankenstein and the bullies to the villagers. In a similar way, the creature had been terrorized for the condition of being hideous, which was not in the creature’s control. The creature was assembled and brought to life by Victor Frankenstein, who after realizing that he had created a being that looked like a monstrosity, chose to abandon the creature to the wrath of the world (Shelley). In a parallel way, Kuusisto was born with a condition that was not in his control, and his parents failed in providing him an atmosphere of support as well as the acceptance that he so desired.
Without others understanding that Kuusisto is blind, his friends could not communicate to him in a way that could have helped him see what they were seeing. This leads Kuusisto to feel hopeless, and when he is in isolation in the attic, he decides to starve himself saying, “I begin mining my hunger…in all the fractions of denial” (52). By emaciating himself, he believes that he has made himself more appealing to fit in with his peers. Kuusisto sense of self-worth is defeated because even though he is trying his best to live an ordinary life, he is denied in multiple ways. Kuusisto is “barred from sports” and “ridiculed by a chemistry teacher” for “whispering to the boy next to [him]” because he is trying to find out what is on the blackboard in order to learn. After a month of battling anorexia, Kuusisto alludes to Huckleberry Finn: “I’ve spent days roaming around like a sleeping wanderer. Blind Huck” (61). In Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, Huck runs away because he feels that he cannot fit in with “sivilized” society (Twain). In the same way, Kuusisto is made to feel that he cannot fit in with a sighted society.
Throughout his memoir, Kuusisto precisely weaves in allusions of outcast characters in literature to depict his relationship with his sense of self and society. While at first Kuusisto struggles with his acceptance by abusing food, eventually he learns to adopt a better coping mechanism by immersing himself in the world of literature. Kuusisto connects to the outcast characters in literature, such as Huck Finn and the creature in Frankenstein, because both of these characters isolated themselves when they were rejected from society in order to develop their sense of selves and discover their passions. By alluding to outcast characters, this reveals that Kuusisto identifies most with those who are considered outsiders, which further reveals his need for the acceptance that he is not receiving.