Blindness

                       Blindness, written by Jose Saramago, is a book of disease. This fictionalized book was written in the modern day. In Blindness a city is hit by an epidemic of ‘white blindness’. This blindness is extremely contagious, and will infect anyone it’s near. Blindness gets right into the action with this ‘white blindness’ starting off by infecting a ordinary man is his car waiting for the green light. This man is referred to as ‘The first blind man’ throughout the rest of the story. Each character is given their own names to be referred to as, rather than the names they were given at birth. For instance; ‘the man with the black eyepatch’, ‘the girl with the dark glasses’, ‘the doctor’s wife’, ‘the doctor’, ‘the wife of the first blind man’, and ‘the boy with the squint’. These are the main characters within the book. All of the events follow the action of them.

                This book is unique. It has been written differently than almost any other book. The best way to describe this is, Jose Saramago has chosen to write in a third person omniscient but it is as if he is telling the story directly to the reader. “Then, carried away by an irresistible impulse, without thinking, she called out to these blind people and to all the blind of this world, she will rise again, note that she did not say she will live again, the matter was not quite that important, although the dictionary is there to confirm, reassure or suggest that we are dealing with complete and absolute synonyms” (302, Blindness). As seen in the quote, there are no quotation marks when people speak. This is for the effect of continuous thought. The writing gives the impression that the narrator is telling the reader she is saying this instead of the girl actually saying it. I believe this was important to the book because it gives the effect that this could have actually have happened. Instead of Jose Saramogo writing a book, he’s telling a story.

                             Blindness shows the reader many things; how will people react to an epidemic, what it’s like to be blind, what it’s like to revert to animalistic way of life. This book is very realistic on the idea of what the world would come to if everyone was blind. The book is also an allegory. The book has the reader ask, ‘Aren’t we all blind?’ This of course is a metaphorical blindness. With television and government propaganda, many people among the world already have, metaphorically, been blinded already. The blindness is also white. Instead of the blind seeing no colours, they see all colours. Even when they close their eyes the penetrating ‘white sea’ sits still, unmoving and merciless. Only when the characters fall to sleep do they finally see the comforting darkness of space within their eyelids. 

                            In the book, the ‘white blindness’ epidemic starts off by only infecting a few characters. First the man at the lights, ‘the first blindman’ infects the robber, ‘the car robber’. ‘The first blind man’ is lead home by ‘the car robber’ and ‘the first blind man’ infects his wife, ‘the wife of the first blind man’. Before she is infected she takes him to ‘the doctors’, while sitting in the waiting room ‘the boy with the squint and ‘the girl with the dark glasses’ sit as well. They are all infected. ‘The doctor’ goes home, and realizes this blindness is extremely contagious. He makes his wife stay away from him. The health board decides it is best to collect all the blind and put them in quarantine, also known as an old mental asylum. ‘The wife of the doctor’ got into quarantine because she faked her blindness, throughout the entire book she slowly expects herself to go blind but she never does. Somehow, this is never explained, she is immune to the blindness. 

                        Jose Saramago was born into a family of peasants in Azinhaga, Portugal, a small village in the province of Ribatejo. His parents were Jose de Sousa and Maria de Piedade. “Saramago,” is translated into, a wild herbaceous plant known in English as the wild radish, was his father’s family’s nickname, and was accidentally incorporated into his name upon registration of his birth. In 1924, Saramago’s family moved to Lisbon, where his father started working as a policeman. A few months after the family moved to the capital, his brother Francisco, older by two years, died. Although Saramago was a good pupil, his parents were unable to afford to keep him in grammar school, and instead moved him to a technical school at age twelve. After graduating, he worked as a car mechanic for two years. Later he worked as a translator, then as a journalist. He was assistant editor of the newspaper Diário de Notícias, a position he had to leave after the political events in 1975. After a period of working as a translator he was able to support himself as a writer. Saramago married Ilda Reis in 1944. Their only child, Violante, was born in 1947. Since 1988, Saramago has been married to the Spanish journalist Pilar del Río, who is the official translator of his books into Spanish.(Wikkipedia.com).

                    Personally I enjoyed this book. The idea of blindness was exhilarating. There was a lot of action, which kept things interesting, and Jose Saramago’s description which allowed a great picture to be made. I would say that s person who is a more advanced reader would enjoy this book. As well as those who critically analyze things they read. The only really confusing thing in this book was trying to figure out who was talking, as there are no quotation marks for those people. This was an amazing and original book to read and I cannot wait to read the next book, Seeing.  

                                                                      —-Tom