Critique Of Blindness In Jose Saramago's Blindness

Human nature is the characteristics, feelings and behavioral traits of humankind. Humans are capable of expressing different kinds of emotions such as joy, frustration, despair, remorse, and other forms of emotions depending on the situations they are encountering. In the film ‘Minority Report’, various kinds of human characteristics have been portrayed. The view of human nature posited in this film is assuming that all humankind is likely to commit crimes regardless of their position.

Throughout the novel Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison works with many different images of blindness and impaired vision and how it relates to perception. These images prove to be fascinating pieces of symbolism that enhance the themes of impression and vision within the novel. From the beginning of the novel when the narrator is blindfolded during the battle royal to the end where Brother Jack's false eye pops out, images of sight and blindness add to the meaning of many scenes and characters. In many of these situations the characters inability to see outwardly often directly parallels their inability to perceive inwardly what is going on in the world around them. Characters like Homer A. Barbee and Brother Jack believe they are all knowing

Unlike animals, humans are able to observe past the mere monochromatic vision of survival. We have an impeccable ability to desire more than just living to breed, and breeding only to someday perish. Thus, we gradually brush this canvas with the colours of ethics, control, and knowledge. Whether the colours fade or become prominent through time, this canvas becomes our perception of normality and we allow it to justify our actions; favorable or harmful. We, as well as the narrator in the short story The Hunt by Josephine Donovan represent this. However, because of the narrator’s difference in perception, self-indulgence, and greed for power, the story introduces a feeling of infuriation to the reader.

“Tis the times' plague, when madmen lead the blind” (4.1.46-47). In the tragedy King Lear, blindness is a key theme that is repeatedly mentioned and represented in many different forms. Throughout the novel, blindness is most often developed in the forms of mental and physical blindness. For King Lear and Gloucester specifically, blindness leads them to decisions that they will later regret in the play, and Gloucester’s actual blindness is a mirror image of Lear’s spiritual blindness. King Lear’s main plot and Gloucester’s sub-plot are almost identical, and by both of them being blinded for a majority of the novel, they both come to realize the truth in what is actually occurring in their families.

Blindness is not limited to physical manifestation. In Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral,” the figurative blindness is immediately apparent through the narrator and his shallowness, irrational jealousy, and egotistical personality. His dismissive behavior and ignorance towards the feelings of Robert, his wife’s blind friend, speak negatively of his character and reveals his insecurities. While the narrator’s emotional blindness and Robert’s physical blindness initially inhibits their bond, it eventually leads the narrator to an epiphany and the beginning of a character transformation. The different forms of blindness allow the characters to bond and grow over the course of the story.

The use of symbolism such as the physical and emotional meanings of blindness can describe different meanings behind elements of the story. In the critical essay, the author discusses why an author might choose to make a character bling and what it means. Diane Andrews Henningfeld, the author of the critical essay explains, “clearly the author wants to emphasize other levels of sight and blindness beyond physical.” Blindness can be more than just the levels of physical sight and the author wants that to be understood. The author wants to emphasize and make it very clear that other levels of sight and blindness exist like not seeing the beauty in life and being blind to it beyond just being able to see with your eyes. The quote can feel something about the characters traits and how they can be so opposite from their physical abilities. This quote Conveys the facts. People can see in different ways. It is stated that,“although he is blind, he ‘sees’ how to get along with others in profound and important ways. By contrast, the narrator, although sighted, does not see how his isolation damages himself, his wife, and their relationship. He is

One of the main elements that literature with merit must exemplify is symbolism. As soon as an author introduces a symbolic reference, a premade notion that the reader constructed could be affected. Not only would a symbol alter the meaning of a message, but it would also add an emotional element to the story. Throughout All the Light We Cannot See, a series of symbols were inaugurated. The first, and most predominant symbol that was recurrent throughout the book was vision. The two protagonists, Marie-Laure LeBlanc and Werner Pfennig, both play a contrasting role when it comes to the symbolic meaning behind vision. On one hand, Marie-Laure is physically unable to see due to her blindness. Therefore, she does not experience the world in the same way as the other leading character, Werner Pfennig. Instead,

The nature and way humans behave has been sunk deep into our ancestors’ history and experiences. The many sides of human nature are present in all of mankind. The nature of mankind is explored by numerous texts. Two of these texts are Lord of the Flies and The Hunger Games. Both texts explore the nature of humans and how everyone has traits of them all.

The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is about a young African American male. Who takes a journey into his past through oppression, and segregation down south and up north. In the first pages of the book in the prologue the narrator labels himself as invisible, after he explains that he is not a ghost nor an ectoplasm seen in movies but instead he is of regular flesh and bone he says “i am invisible understand simply because people refuse to see me” (Ellison 3). This leads us into one of the many themes that Ellison is trying to convey. Blindness, in the story The Invisible Man, a select number of black people are blind, they can be blind because they lack sight or vision of ideology.

Humans have come a long way, being able to create advanced technology, many different ways to communicate with one another, and many different ways to live, and each human in the world has a role in the world. Each human is unique and have many different traits that define one another. For example, in Frederick Douglass’s “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, written by Frederick Douglass himself, is an autobiography of his life growing up around slavery and his path to freedom, and also how becoming literate changed his whole perspective on the way he lived. Another example would be in Abraham Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address, where he discusses the fact that the civil war was unnecessary and also how the country should end the war and that they should help each other rebuild the nation together. A final example would be in The Minister’s Black Veil, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, who writes about Mr. Hooper who wears a black veil, and the townspeople have no clue why he’s wearing it, and this scares the town and the people around him. This veil holds a heavy toll on him because it represents his sins that he needs to atone for. Although humans are naturally evil and make decisions that are based to benefit themselves, ultimately the trait of the human is to be cowardice, fearful, and optimistic, therefore we should not succumb to our greediness and instead become a better person.

By saying that his idea of blind people came from the movies shows that he probably has not had any real life encounters with a person who is blind, therefore the only idea he has of blind people are the kind that are portrayed in movies. However, by saying that blind people “never laugh” and “move slowly” makes them seem dysfunctional as human beings. Blind people cannot see, but that does not correlate to how quickly they move. By saying that blind people move slowly, that indicates that they are “disabled” and not able to keep up at the same pace as others. Not only is the fact that the narrators perception of those who are blind awkward, but it makes it seem as if the blind have their own stereotypes—which is the foundation of discrimination and prejudice.

Although humankind attempts its best at preventing evil actions, eventually evil rises above all else. While humans are living ordinary lives and living in ignorance, evil is always scheming and waiting to slide up behind the turned backs of society as depicted in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. One could argue that this is not the case and that good deeds always overshadow evil and that evil is just an occasional blip. However, what one’s opinion of society does not outshine the cold hard facts of humankind’s natural tendencies; specifically, how things are never as they seem, how easily humans can betray their emotions and how humans choose to ignore difficult situations in the search for an easy

Human nature is a broad subject. What does it truly mean? It is a word with more than just one definition. To put in simpler terms, human nature is characterized into two major types; human perception and human behaviour. Of course, not all humans have the same perspective. Likewise, they all do not perform the same behaviours. Humans are different from one another, as is every other living entity. Because of this, there may be similarities between humans, but there are most definitely differences as well. Written by Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner is a book that describes the life of a young Sunni Muslim/Pashtun named Amir. The book follows his life as he changes from childhood to adulthood to show how human nature greatly affects his life, and the individuals around him. This book is filled with many characters that have unique strengths and weaknesses that help describe their ‘human nature.’ For instance, Baba, Amir’s father, nicknamed as Mr. Hurricane, is described as an extremely brave person who acts upon himself to help and defend others from their troubles. An example of this is when he decides to build an orphanage (Hosseini 12-13). His downfall in the end was his decision to reject the chemotherapy, as his bravery made him ignorant. The author’s perspective on human nature shows how it is able to determine the fate of an individual throughout their life. This is evident on Amir’s case, as his actions revolve around the

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

From the moment they are born, humans have a naturally evil predisposition. Although the term ‘evil’ is difficult to define, there are various views on morality. The most commonly referenced one, Moral Objectivism, holds that moral standards are universally transcendent, and that certain acts are right or wrong independent of human subjectivity. It is by this unspoken moral code that humanity’s acts are judged. There is some debate whether a fundamental human nature exists, as social and environmental influences are present from the moment someone is born. But if we can define human nature, it is beyond doubt, naturally evil. The English philosopher Thomas