Blindness Summary and Analysis of Part I. Buy Study Guide. Summary. In the middle of rush hour, in a nameless city, a man goes blind at an intersection. Suddenly struck blind, he flails and screams until someone takes pity on his situation and offers to drive him home. Once the good samaritan gets the blind man to his apartment, he offers to stay with him until the first blind Blindness, a novel by Portuguese author José Saramago, depicts the dystopian outcome of a plague of white blindness, (clunky) a mysterious disease that eventually becomes known among the novel’s characters as the “white evil.”. Saramago quickly introduces the malady, recounting the first infection within the first few pages of the novel Blindness: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis. Blindness: Chapter 2. LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Blindness, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. The narrator notes that the thief who stole the first blind man ’s car offered to help him out of genuine selflessness—he’s not a “hardened criminal [].”.Missing: jose saramago
Analysis Of Blindness By Jose Saramago English Literature Essay - Course Scholar
In the middle of rush hour, in a nameless city, a man goes blind at an intersection. Suddenly struck blind, he flails and screams until someone takes pity on his situation and offers to drive him home. Once the good samaritan gets the blind man to his apartment, he offers to stay with him until the first blind man's wife arrives.
The first blind man hurries him off and says that he will be fine, blindness jose saramago literary analysis. Navigating blind in his own house, the first blind man knocks over a vase full of flowers and cuts himself, blindness jose saramago literary analysis. Despairingly, he bandages himself the best he can and falls asleep. When his wife arrives, she is first upset about the broken vase until she sees the blood and realizes that something is very wrong.
Talking to her husband about his condition, she realizes that this blindness is even stranger, in that, instead of seeing nothing, he sees a milky whiteness everywhere he looks. She resolves to take him to the eye clinic as quickly as possible. Descending from their apartment, the first blind man's wife cannot find the car. They quickly realize that the good samaritan has stolen the car. Infuriated and discouraged, they take a taxi to the clinic. Arriving at the clinic, they are hurried straight to the attending doctor, blindness jose saramago literary analysis, in front of an old man with cataracts, a boy with a squint and a young girl with conjunctivitis.
After performing a series of tests, the doctor is completely baffled since the man's eyes show no sign of lesion or of damage, but he promises the blindness jose saramago literary analysis that he will contact his colleagues and do some research. In the beginning of the novel, the main issues are put forth. The epidemic has no identifiable cause, nor known mode of transmission. Many themes that are present in the novel are anticipated in this first section.
The epigraph of the novel also suggest an allegorical reading that is developed here. Firstly, in the blindness of the first man we see a foreshadowing of the infrastructure breakdown that will grip the city after the spread of the white sickness.
It is important that the first man struck blind is affected while in his car, an effect which will be repeated millions blindness jose saramago literary analysis times as the disease spreads. In this first moment of blindness, we also see the ambivalence of the people surrounding the blind man. This will be amplified later into the open antagonism of the quarantine and blindness jose saramago literary analysis shootings of the infected.
The exploitation of the blind man's situation by the car thief is also indicative of the predatory nature of humanity that is stressed throughout the book. Secondly, we see the importance of belonging and of the home when the blind man returns to his apartment not only to not recognize it, but to actually injure himself.
This shows that even the home can become a place of danger very easily. It also reinforces the idea that will come later that "home" is not just a function of a physical place, but a function of belonging in general.
Thirdly, in this section we begin to see the impotence of medicine. In Blindnessmedicine functions as a metonymy for the whole of modern life. Medicine is the discipline where all of the benefits of modernity are brought to bear on the most fundamental problems of human life.
All of the other aspects of modern life, modern government, blindness jose saramago literary analysis, culture and economy, for example, blindness jose saramago literary analysis, are useless without life and without health. The fact that medicine fails, even in this small sense, shows the eminent failure of the entirety of the modern world.
The epigraph at the beginning of the novel is taken from the Book of Exhortations; "If you can see, look. If you can look, observe. In Plato's "Allegory of the Cave," captives are held in a cave unable to blindness jose saramago literary analysis anything but reflections of light from the outside world on the stone in front of them.
This is meant to allegorize man's relationship to the world of the Platonic Forms and truth, of which we know only reflections and shadows, blindness jose saramago literary analysis.
The blindness of the novel operates in this same allegorical vein, using blindness as a metaphor for ignorance. The blindness in the platonic allegory serves as a barrier to understanding just as the blindness in the novel is itself something incomprehensible — the doctors are baffled as to its cause, how it spreads and what can stop it.
Blindness, in short, cannot contemplate itself — just as the ignorant in Plato's cave do not know that they live in a cave, ignorant even of their own ignorance. The Question and Answer section for Blindness is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. Literary Devices. Why do you think the girl with the dark glasses chose not to tell the truth about what the car thief did to her in the line? Was this the right choice? Explain your reasoning. In my opinion, the girl did not want to admit that her actions kicking the thief were purposeful.
She is frightened and uncertain. Each of the people in line are fearful their fears, however, vary. Social mores disappear in response to Do you believe that justice was served? Why or whynot? How else do we see justice being served in the story? This question calls for your opinion. There is no right or wrong answer. I do not consider an epidemic justice for a crime. In addition, the separation of the boy from his mother creates other problems as well. The Blindness study guide contains a biography of Jose Saramago, blindness jose saramago literary analysis, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.
Blindness literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Blindness by Jose Saramago. Remember me. Forgot your password? Buy Study Guide. The poem? Study Guide for Blindness The Blindness study guide contains a biography of Jose Saramago, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.
About Blindness Blindness Summary Character List Glossary Themes Read the Study Guide for Blindness…. Essays for Blindness Blindness literature essays are academic essays for citation.
Social Behavior in Saramago's Blindness Overcoming Sexual Wrongdoing: Blindness v. Salvage the Bones Proverbs and Blindness jose saramago literary analysis Comfort in Blindness.
Lesson Plan for Blindness About the Author Study Objectives Common Core Standards Introduction to Blindness Relationship to Other Books Bringing in Technology Notes to the Teacher Related Links Blindness Bibliography View the lesson plan for Blindness….
Wikipedia Entries for Blindness Introduction Plot summary Characters Style Sequel View Wikipedia Entries for Blindness….
Who Is Jose Saramago and Why You Should Care
, time: 10:55Blindness Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis | LitCharts
Blindness Summary and Analysis of Part I. Buy Study Guide. Summary. In the middle of rush hour, in a nameless city, a man goes blind at an intersection. Suddenly struck blind, he flails and screams until someone takes pity on his situation and offers to drive him home. Once the good samaritan gets the blind man to his apartment, he offers to stay with him until the first blind Blindness, a novel by Portuguese author José Saramago, depicts the dystopian outcome of a plague of white blindness, (clunky) a mysterious disease that eventually becomes known among the novel’s characters as the “white evil.”. Saramago quickly introduces the malady, recounting the first infection within the first few pages of the novel I have just read your review of Saramago's BLINDNESS. as a visually impaired person, I have been trying to make sense of his use of blindness as a trope. blindness operates in his text as both an intertextual sign and as a referent. blindness represents limitation. this is true in the very obvious sense of the analogy between knowing and seeing. blindness also leads the
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