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.
This will be amplified later into the open antagonism of the quarantine and the shootings of the infected. In this first moment of blindness, we also see the ambivalence of the people surrounding the blind man. It is important that the first man struck blind is affected while in his car, an effect which will be repeated millions of times as the disease spreads. The epigraph of the novel also suggest an allegorical reading that is developed here.įirstly, 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. Many themes that are present in the novel are anticipated in this first section. The epidemic has no identifiable cause, nor known mode of transmission. In the beginning of the novel, the main issues are put forth. 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 man that he will contact his colleagues and do some research. Infuriated and discouraged, they take a taxi to the clinic.Īrriving at the clinic, they are hurried straight to the attending doctor, in front of an old man with cataracts, a boy with a squint and a young girl with conjunctivitis. They quickly realize that the good samaritan has stolen the car. Descending from their apartment, the first blind man's wife cannot find the car. She resolves to take him to the eye clinic as quickly as possible. 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. When his wife arrives, she is first upset about the broken vase until she sees the blood and realizes that something is very wrong.
Despairingly, he bandages himself the best he can and falls asleep. Navigating blind in his own house, the first blind man knocks over a vase full of flowers and cuts himself. The first blind man hurries him off and says that he will be fine.
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. Suddenly struck blind, he flails and screams until someone takes pity on his situation and offers to drive him home. In the middle of rush hour, in a nameless city, a man goes blind at an intersection.
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