Blindness

Hello Gentle Reader

Ever been in a dark room. Where you have lifted your hand up towards your face, and moved it about. Thinking you could see the ripples or vibrations of the movements of the hand cutting through the darkness that engulfs and surrounds you? As we all know this is typical of blindness. The total lack of light and colour. Its almost as if your eyes had been covered by some shadowy invisible, blindfold that you cannot remove. Yet what if the blindness was like a milky sea of white? Like a fog that cannot be penetrated? Does that cause some solace, in an other wise feeling of hopeless despair? That the person is no longer, left in a dark shadowy void or abyss, but rather is stranded on some island in the middle of a milky white overcast, sea? Are both the same? Do both cause the same hopeless despair and anxiety that, a person can no longer rely on their usual sense of sight to guide them around the world, however large or small? Or would it be worst to be the only person able to see in a city or a country or even a world, over come with blindness?

The characters, in Jose Saramago's (Nobel Laureate in Literature of 1998) novel "Blindness," are universal. They have no names. They are just simply described by the "narrator," by their superficial traits -- the doctors wife, the girl with dark glasses, the boy with the squint -- they have no other identity then that. They are nameless and faceless. Though they all share one thing in common, they are Blind.

As the story goes an entire unnamed and unspecified country is suddenly struck by Blindness. But not the kind of Blindness, that is like having a sole, candle burning in a pitch dark room, and the candle is suddenly burnt out. No this Blindness, is different in the sense that the people, are thrown in a world of everlasting, and never-ending White(ness) where all they can see is nothing but white.

It becomes apparent to the government of this unnamed country that this "white blindness," is contagious and soon an epidemic, and the government of this country makes containing this disease its responsibility and priority. Gathering everyone up that is blind, and those suspected of being infected but yet to go blind, they stick these poor unfortunate people into a uninhabited and abandoned Mental Asylum. There these poor people, are isolated, and alienated from the outside world. Kept under lock and key, and threatened with death, these people, have to learn to cope with their new situations, and are left only to realize that they will most likely never be cured, and will live out the rest of their years, in such a disgusting and old, place.

As more people start coming in, the wards become fuller and fuller, the asylum sure only on the brink of exploding by the overpopulation. People who once thought themselves, as something higher then "animals," find themselves, acting in savage manners, just like animals. The floors become beds, and lavatories. The ever present ravenous gnawing of hunger reminding the inmates that they are still alive, they are left only with one thought -- when shall we die?

Then things suddenly go from bad to worst (if such a possibility is possible). New inmates arrive, but they suddenly turn a situation that is already hopeless, and despairing into something that is borderline hell. These new inmates take all the food rations, and greedily hoard them to themselves. They demand all inmates valuable possessions, for payment for food. Then once all the possessions are gathered up, the next step is to gather all the woman to satisfy their primate urge for sexual gratification. How is it that these tyrannical inmates enforce their sadistic rule? With weapons, from simply, sticks, to poles -- to the smuggled in gun. The threat of violence and death is something that all the inmates understand perfectly. Under these threats, and the desire to live -- even if they are blind -- they do as they are told.

However with civilization stripped away and therefore the very rules of society and civilization stripped away, and the sudden realization that its survival of the fittest, and soon there is very little "humanity," left in people. Soon the animal in all us -- the true 'self,' in many ways takes hold.

and sometimes vengeance is one of those things that takes hold on people. No saint is really without, the human desire for payback and vengeance, and since one person can see, and was humiliated by the Tyrant and his little gang, she acted on those feelings and caused vengeance. Survival of the fittest one could say sometimes means taking out the fittest one.

However, even a Saint sometimes allows the stray sheep to die, for the better of their own flock. When finding food, would a person share it with everyone? Or would that person, take all that they can carry, and share it amongst those that are in its group? People appear to be like dogs, in many ways. Once the collective body of a government and society/civilization, falls they form into packs. Rabid, selfish packs which only worry about their own survival and could careless if another group suddenly without warning dies.

In many ways Jose Saramago's novel "Blindness," has stripped away mankind’s false premise that people are "civilized," and nothing can change that. This supposed "civilized," nature that people have, is only a mask. Something that is easily worn and easy to break. Through out history people have witnessed the break down of societal groups into anarchy. It only takes a disaster that starts out small and soon travels to a full scale, destructive measure. Haiti’s earthquake set up a country into a mass anarchy that no longer follows rules, or societal, "normalities," but soon quickly dissolved into a all to common idea of animal panic, and fear, and that soon dissolved the very "humanity," in everyone -- or the concept that we fool ourselves into thinking we have -- into anarchy based on survival, even if that means we have to kill our neighbours who we used to have drinks with and invited over for dinner.

The one thing I do applaud Jose Saramago's novel is -- that his novel, does not come across as over emotional poetic in terms of trying to romanticize the misfortune and pain of those that he has created. He merely acts as a observer, describing their trials to survive, even when it is easier to give up. Jose Saramago however does make it quite clear, that even with the hopeless situation that these people find themselves in, there is something that has them continuing forward. As if there is something that they are "hoping," for and yet have a strong understanding that is a fantasy. However, Jose Saramago does very well in describing mankind’s spirit that demands respect, and therefore keeps people going. The last aspect that I enjoyed and respected greatly with this book is; that the author/narrator/observer, does not try to justify any of the horrible atrocities that people are capable of. He merely holds up the mirror to our possibilities and shows us just how fragile our "civilizations," are and how society can break down in a blink of an eye.

Take Care my Gentle Readers
Thank-you For Reading
And As Always
Stay Well Read

M.Mary