Blindness

Rating:
Summary: Blindness
Review: BLINDNESS

Blindness, an admired novel written by Jose Saramago, has been the landmark of Saramago's writing career. The novel is based on a society that is suddenly stricken by "white blindness" that seems to infect people simply by being in visual contact with one of the contaminated. The epidemic begins with a man driving his car when suddenly begins to shout out, "I'm blind." This horror, spreading quickly, causes the government to resort to decisive action and send all of the blind to an insane asylum where they are to be isolated from society until a cure is found. This book merely exemplifies the disorder of man with no authority. As the blind are left with no order and no leaders, it causes turmoil and complete disregard for law and order. Readers of all mature ages I believe would appreciate this book. It combines all the qualities of different styles of readers, such as action, interest, and intellect.
While reading this novel it is easy to come across the fact that Saramago is demonstrating. It applies the public's fear of blindness with the destruction of a society without order. Saramago uses his brilliant writing skills to depict human nature without order results in the barbaric state of rape and violence to others. Saramago delays you while reading to think, Will society ever recover from this epidemic? Or will people have to learn to live without the imperative effect of eyesight?
I came across this book, similar to most of the novels I have read, because it was my required reading book for school. Although being forced to read this book, I had also gotten word that it came to be quite and interesting novel. Therefore, I picked it up in August, and began to sit and read. Although the first fifty pages were slow moving, it immediately began to pick up and get interesting. It flowed nicely and ended just as I hoped. Overall I was pleased with the reading experience I received from Blindness.
A man in his car is suddenly struck by "white blindness." Citizens that hear the man's pleas come to help, not knowing that by being good Samaritans they would soon go blind. The blind man eventually goes to the eye doctor's office to see if there was any cure for his sudden blindness. The doctor tells him he will look into it and sends the blind man home with his wife. The next day everyone that came in visual contact with the blind man suddenly goes blind, including the doctor and all of his patients that were in the waiting room. This epidemic rapidly spreads and causes the government to send the contaminated and blind internees to an insane asylum where they are to be isolated until a cure may be found. While in this asylum many more join the first few blind until all the wards are completely filled. No mercy is shown to the blind and no order is upheld. This eventually leads to rape and murder. Eventually the blind internees burn down the asylum and escape only to realize that the whole country had gone blind. As said above, Will the country forever have to cope with blindness?
This novel, although not the best I have read was without a doubt, an interesting, well written book. Aside from the author delving into his own little world of description, which he did various times, the overall story that consisted was appealing and well written. It was not by all means the type of book that one cannot put down, but it still consisted of a strong plot, good characters, and a writing style that went well with the premise of the novel. My opinion may differ from others; although the idea I had assimilated from this novel was not that blind are mindless barbarians, but the idea that society left with no order causes destruction. I truly believe this and I compare the overall purpose of this novel to that of Lord of the Flies, a brilliant novel. In this case I believe the author demonstrated his point well and is well deserved of his wide audience and Nobel Prize for Literature. Overall, I recommend Blindness as a book to read in ones spare time, and it is almost assured that he or she that reads it will be satisfied.

Rating:
Summary: blindness
Review: Blindness
by José Saramago
Harvill Press, Great Britain
326 pages
reviewed by Meredith Anderson

José Saramago's novel, Blindness, is unafraid of facing the truths about human nature and where such inane behavior may lead us. Because the novel is one of such power, it has been awarded "A New York Times Notable Book of the Year" and "A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year". The book has soared above many others to an international level. The novel is an influential and disconcerting allegory illustrating what could occur if one loses sight of what is truly meaningful. The characters lose sight and discover that greed takes over and civilization seizes. In reality, people may take life for granted.

The story begins when one man, later known as the first blind man, is hit with "white blindness" while driving in his car. Soon, he and others that have contracted the disease are believed to be contagious and confined to a deserted asylum within the city. Because the author doesn't focus on names, the reader is able to know more about the personality of each character - get to know what they look like and who they are. People begin pouring through the doors of the mental hospital and no one can keep track of how many have been quarantined. The ultimate horror has now occurred:

"...within a second, the hallway was once more the raging whirlpool
it had been at its worst, then, in a sudden and desperate impulse, the
human mass swerved towards the wing on the left, carrying all before
it, the resistance of the contaminated broken, many of them no longer
merely contaminated, others, running like madmen, were still trying to
escape their black destiny." (112).

Some people begin to take advantage of the fact that others are blind. These thieves steal all of the food and demand a woman per amount of food. There is one woman, however, who sees it all - the gruesome acts that occur in the asylum - the killing, assault, pain, and suffering. As soon as the unidentified country is hit with the epidemic and everyone goes blind, the woman guides seven strangers from the building into the barren streets of the city. The city is in total chaos due to the fact that no laws are abided by or enforced. In this nightmarish portrayal of a country gone blind, images of rotting corpses and repulsive acts of behavior mirror the decomposition of human nature.

Blindness taught me a lot about the understanding of life and human nature. Everyone is taking life, civilization, and love for granted. Society is suffering from our blindness towards feelings and laws. We see laws as something bad, whereas they keep order within our society. The style in which it was written and the hidden motifs are what make this book so miraculous. It displays how human behavior is leading us towards death and destruction. Humanity is in danger of vanishing both literally and figuratively. The story acts as a reminder that there are many different forms of blindness - love, pain, fear, and greed. The book teaches much about the cost of human dignity and the value of life. One observation, contracted by the ophthalmologist, describes an understanding about human nature: "Perhaps only in a world of the blind will things be what they truly are."

Blindness is a novel to be read. The lessons within the book's binding are unforgettable. José Saramago has discovered what it takes to comprehend the true meaning of life and through his story, he has given me this understanding. I felt as though I was blind, trying to figure out who was speaking and what was occurring. Through his words and writing style, Saramago takes the reader into the book, as though he were one of the characters.

Rating:
Summary: A Miracle within a Catastrophe
Review: Blindness a literary masterpiece written by Jose Saramago truly shows to the reader its portrayal of human beings as pure naive beings and wild animals. He uses his great descriptive techniques to prove in this novel the downfall in society and in human behavior. Once an epidemic has struck the entire world, all of society is at risk. This whole epidemic begins when one man is struck blind while driving his car, a next when stealing a car, the next when sitting at home, and so begins this epidemic of white blindness. After the outbreak people are in an uproar, this outbreak is unstoppable. As a result of this outbreak, health officials demand the containment of the disease; so they dispose the blind into an asylum on the outskirts of a city. It is through these harsh times, the blind truly do witness the evil spirits in those around them. Saramago's work becomes a masterpiece to the reading world. When reading Blindness its as if you knew exactly how the characters were feeling. When there hearts were racing yours were racing too. Its as if your senses became stronger as there's did, when they became to adapt to their blindness.

If I had not been required to read this book, I would have missed out on a very profound and shattering work. I was intrigued when reading Saramagos' depiction of society and how it endures while undergoing a catastrophic disaster. In his book, he used every type of character; the strong, the weak, the enduring, the evil, the good, the one with heart, the leader, the follower, and many more. It was his ability to incorporate all qualities in his characters, which allowed me to remain involved in his book. There were no down parts in his novel; it was a compelling novel, where the excitement remained until the very last line.

Saramago's book not only left a mark on the readers but on the public. The New Yorker says "Saramago's surreal allegory explores the ability of the human spirit to prevail in even the most absurdly unjust of conditions, yet he reinvents the familiar struggle with the stylistic eccentricity of a master." Due to his ability to write such an astounding book, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998. This book was named a miracle within a disaster; the miracle, being the ability for the blind to survive, and endure, under the evils of others and the power of corruption.

From the very beginning of the novel, the main characters; the doctor and his wife use their leadership skills to help the new arriving blind people to adapt to their new environment. While living in the asylum they learn to live under the rule of the man on the loudspeaker. The man on the loudspeaker is an army commander whose army is keeping watch on the asylum. All goes to pieces when the entire world is struck blind. The group of blind people who remained with each other since the beginning ( with the doctor and his wife) must rely on each other to survive in the chaos of the real world. Through thick and thin, through starvation, and evil, they must prevail.

I would have to say this was one of the best books I have ever read; Saramago's technique of writing draws the reader into epidemic itself. I give him credit for ridiculing human being's nature to resort to evil. In his novel, he portrays to the reader how human beings resort back to evil ways to try and survive. He deserves more credit then he has received in this masterpiece. " Blindness is a powerful portrayal of man's worst appetites and weaknesses - and man's ultimately exhilarating spirit. "According to the Village Voice, " Extraordinary nuanced and evocative ... This year's most propulsive, and most profound thriller." A masterpiece that should be read for decades to come.

Rating:
Summary: Blindness is brilliant
Review: The brilliance of Saramago's work lies beyond the story, the characters, etc. (which are described below by other reviewers). Blindness provides a framework to understand the foundations of modern civilization and social evolution. It forces the reader to understand the tenuous nature of our collective existence, in much the same way that Americans (and many others around the world) were forced to understand the tenuous nature of our existence following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. If you are a person with even the slightest imagination, you will after reading this book be compelled to reflect on (and likely fear) the endless possibilities for rapid societal mutation.

Rating:
Summary: Hauntingly Nightmarish !!
Review: Saramago has created a nightmarish fantasy where one of our most elemental fears has come true. A blindness plague has, inexplicably, spread throughout the whole country, sparing almost no one. The first people to become blind are interned in a mental asylum, where they struggle to survive amidst hunger, disease, filth and the indifference of the outside world. When they manage to escape, they encounter a world where all social services have broken down because everybody has gone blind. This is the most haunting, the most disturbing book I have ever read. The absurdist, bare-knuckle, Kafkaesque narrative is only fitting, since no purple-prose can convey the sheer horror of the situation. It is a deeply unsettling work because it jolts us into realising that all the infrastructure of ease and comfort that modern civilisation has built up rests on thin, impermanent foundations. Blindness is a huge masterpiece that will haunt many generations of readers.

Rating:
Summary: Thumbs Down: Save Yourself the Time
Review: I give this book one star on the basis that it qualifies as a book and because I admire the author's guts and imagination. For the most part I found this book to be long, tedious, and boring. Little changed during the course of the plot and I never discovered the "powerful portrayal of man's..." The bright spots in Blindness were few and far between. At best I would say that this book is a bland discription of everyday occurencences under a filter of blindness; neither the tone nor the rhythm of plot seemed to change at all during the course of this story. I am happy to be moving on from this disappointing epidemic of white blindness.

Rating:
Summary: Triffids got there first
Review: I haven't read the book (so ignore the 1 star rating) and am not going to wade through all 166 reviews, but, apart from its similarity to "La Peste", hasn't anyone noticed that the central premise of everyone going blind is lifted straight from John Wyndham's "The Day of the Triffids"?

Rating:
Summary: A few contrary words...
Review: I agree with much of the praise that is lavished on this work and its Nobel-winning author. But....felt compelled to add a few mitigating words of criticism to these gushing reader reviews. Saramago's symbolism is powerful, but it is a long way from subtle, and at times I felt he was battering me over the head with Man's Blindness To His Fellow Man. Also, the story aims for a degree of realism--The Plague was clearly a (more successful) model--but yet here it never occurs to the main characters, a group of blind plague-sufferers led by an immune, seeing woman--to just hop in a car and just get the heck out of their stinking, ravaged, famished, hellishly plague-infested city...until almost the last page. And a final gripe: if I were blind, this novel would come close to offending me. Granted, the author is aiming for allegory, but the bottom premise of the tale--often explicitly stated--is that "to be blind is to be dead." OK, I'm done...

Rating:
Summary: Things are quite dark in here.
Review: When an author wins the Nobel Prize, the Nobel Committee composes a blurb summarizing that author's contribution to the world of literature. For Jose Saramago, they said: "who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality".
After reading Blindness, my opinion is that the statement does reflect what Saramago is doing (in this case, at least). He took a very difficult subject (inexplicable sudden blindness) and caused the reader to "apprehend" what would happen if such a situation became reality. I found the entire story to be extremely disturbing, but very believable on many levels. Very detailed, realistic.
Whatever causes this "white blindness" is definitely the most contagious thing to ever sweep the earth. Apparently, just from seeing the infected person... WHAMMO you've got it too! This didn't bother me as a reader, maybe some people find it just a bit too... bizarre? I think Saramago's inventiveness with this whole particular blindness theme was brilliant. Not since reading Stephen King's "The Stand" was I so convinced that it was the end of the world.
Along with whether or not you can adjust yourself to its literary composition (which is by no means orthodox or ordinary) I think a reader's opinion of the following two statements would greatly determine their opinion of Blindness as a STORY.
1) Man is a fallen (base) creature, with a natural bias to do evil.
2) Men are good by nature, and made bad by society.

To me, it is obvious that there is truth-value to both statements. But I believe that the first statement is MORE true... truer in more instances. Those who would feel the same about that issue would enjoy Blindness more than those who favor the latter statement. Because, in this book, there are few heroes... the majority of mankind when the chips are down... look pretty grim. Things are quite dark in here. To those with a generally cheery disposition and optimistic outlook on humanity in general, this book makes a very unwise gift.
I "see" it as a four and a half star work of art.

Rating:
Summary: The Blind Can But Do Not See
Review: For many of us, blackouts that occur in the night can be unsettling. For those of us without automatically triggered generators, it takes a while before we can reach candles, lamps, and matches. We walk slowly as not to trip or hit our shins, we extend our arms to avoid bumping into walls or appliances. But even with candles or lamps we are quite helpless without electricity. It's not just a question of missing TV shows-we cannot read or type out work due the next day, in some areas there is no water, our refrigerated food can spoil.

Now imagine if we were really blind, without the aid of electricity or fire for seeing. We have to rely on our other senses for distinction. Smell, sound, touch, and taste unlike sight can only differentiate approximately. We would find ourselves lost in oceans of the unknowable; we would be immobilized.

The condition in Blindness is much worse than that. In the book, a different kind of blindness has become a contagious sickness-a blindness where one is not submerged in darkness but in a persistent sea of white light. Everybody except for a woman has been stricken. This includes the people who regulate water pumps, who control the distribution of electricity, who man traffic lights, who sit in government, who sell food. When we find that the structures we have built our lives on are rendered useless, there is nothing to prevent disaster; we find ourselves degrading into sub-humans-into animals.

Reading the first few chapters of the book, you will find yourself gripped by the economy of words, by the lack of periods (most of which have been replaced by commas), by the lack of dialogue quotation marks, and even by block paragraphs that can go on for two to three pages. As if it was the most natural thing, you find yourself hearing the weight of the voices and even seeing the expressions of the faces of the characters who aren't even called by their names. Without noticing, you learn the patience and the attention of the blind. Reading about a world peopled by the blind, you return to what vision has relegated: you listen. And this does not need names or faces. One of the characters mentions that it is not that we have too many words but that we have too few emotions and by not using the words they express, we lose them. Later on we shall remind ourselves: to see is to listen.

The first of the blind are quarantined in a mental hospital and the horrors committed there are of the same order (or disorder) as those committed in the island of the stranded children in Lord of the Flies. In both books there is anarchy against sight. But we are not to say that atrocities are merely let loose with the collapse of order and authority. Like the eyes of the blind, what may seem clear has actually been clouded over; what may seem unthinkable has always been there. In the asylum we encounter the blindness of bureaucracy, the blindness of fear, the blindness of malice, the blindness of indifference, and the blindness of despair. They are not strangers, but in the isolation of the hospital they do more than startle-and not just at how we find others capable of them, but how we ourselves are prey. As the doctor's wife discovers: nobody is born a criminal; we only find out.

In the book we see with the eyes of the doctor's wife, the only person who was spared by the sickness. She says, "The only miracle we can perform is to go on living...to preserve the fragility of life from day to day, as if it were blind and did not know where to go, and perhaps it is like that, perhaps it really does not know." She is not merely speaking of entropy or of the infinite, but of the humility of the truth of blindness-that we do not know. We do not know ourselves, we do not know people, we do not know endings. In Blindness, many maxims and proverbs emerge in conversations, like scaffoldings of knowledge whenever an event or a problem demands or enlightens. This is the way of language and the humanity of blindness (or the blindness of humanity): in it there is a dialogue of understanding. There is no final word; life is not an animal to be harnessed. That's why we talk, we tell stories, we read books.

I like the book primarily because of this. Looking back at the descriptions of the reviews before the title page-sinuous, stylistic, important, phantasmagoria, masterpiece, sophisticated, soul-wrenching, best-I can't help but cringe. For me the book is open and at the same time looks me straight into the face. In a strange way it listens while it teaches me listen.

Let us close with what the book has opened, with words from the author José Saramago: "We pervert reason when we humiliate life, that human dignity is insulted every day by the powerful of the world, that the universal lie has replaced the plural truths, that man stopped respecting himself when he lost respect due to his fellow-creatures."
And still in the words of Saramago through the doctor's wife: "I don't think we did go blind, I think we are blind, Blind but seeing, Blind people who can see, but do not see."