Summary of Plot: Jose Saramgos Blindness starts off with a single incidence of an individual spontaneously going blind and

the unexplained mass epidemic of blindness that followed. With the proliferating onset of blindness occurring at an accelerated rate, due to the contagious quality of the milky white blindness, the government of the society took drastic measures to separate and confine the blind from the seeing by quarantining the blind in an asylum. Blindness follows the story of one group of blind individuals including an optometrist, his wife, a young woman with dark glasses, the first blind couple, a young boy and an elderly man with an eye patch. The unique aspect of this group is that the doctors wife has mysteriously not been affected with this blindness and acts as the groups eyes, aiding them in the asylum and in the outside world to fare against the other blind citizens. After many acts of atrocities and barbarism seen and done among the blind, they regain their site left to ponder about what had just happened to them and in which manner they dealt with it. Setting: Saramago never names the city or time where the story took place; readers just know that the setting is a large cosmopolitan area anywhere in the world. This is perhaps an attempt to interpret blindness as a universal condition or experience that transcends all social class, race, religion, gender, nationality and era. The actual location of the setting may be considered unnecessary because in a world turned blind, the only difference the setting makes is the abundance of the resources in order to survive. From the inclusion of grocery shops and food stores, electricity, cars, etc. readers can tell the story takes place in a fairly developed city. The social order, technologies and institutions that exist in the story with a leading government and military taking action upon the incidence of blindness, readers can tell that the story takes place in a typical modern-day society. A large chunk of the novel takes place in the old asylum where all the blind have been quarantined. Within the asylum, the blind have been divided into fully blind and almost blind where the almost blind individuals have been in direct contact with blind individuals and have surely contracted the blindness and are just waiting for the blindness to hit. Within the asylum, there are different wards and as the number of blind increased and social order was increasingly thrown out of order, the conflict between the wards increased based on the amount of food each ward was receiving. The asylum was completely quarantined and isolated and there was absolutely no help given to the blind members who had undergone their own war in the asylum. The war inside the asylum eventually led to the burning down of the asylum and the doctors group was left to fend for themselves within the city. The rest of the story took place in the city with the group going through various food stores scavenging for food and trying to find each others homes for shelter. In the end, they decided that they would stay in the doctors home and would go out on daily trips to gather food. It was in the doctors home where the characters finally regained their sight.

Characters: The Doctor's Wife: A woman in her late forties, and the wife of an ophthalmologist, referred to as "the doctor's wife". When the plague of blindness first devastates the city and the infected are placed into isolation, the doctor's wife fakes the sickness to care for her husband. She constantly expects to lose her vision at any moment, yet somehow she is the only person immune to the contagion of blindness. This ultimately forces her into becoming responsible for the blind inmates, yet she admits that the pressures of caring for a band of helpless people exhausts her, and she even begins to wish she too were blind. She murders a sadistic inmate ("King of Ward 3") in the asylum where the blind are contained and helps the others escape the quarantine. The Doctor: A friendly ophthalmologist who becomes blind after attempting to treat the first patient who is infected by the "white blindness." He too quickly goes blind and is placed into quarantine with his wife, who can still see but together they hide this fact for fear that she may be forced into becoming a slave for the blind inmates. He resents the dependence he has on his wife after he loses his sight. He is elected leader of his ward and does his best to keep order and peace through diplomatic strategies, but quickly finds his compassion does him little or no good amongst the bands of ruthless detainees in the asylum. Conflict: With the use of different conflicts and the atrocious actions committed, Saramago illustrates the descent of human beings into beasts along with the falling of their society. The first conflict took place when the blindness had begun its spread, and was between the seeing and the blind. At the beginning, it was a rational decision to isolate the blind, but later on when its spread continued, fear led the seeing to resort to cruelty in order to ensure their own safety. The seeing, which was composed of the government and members of the army, had absolutely no concern over the blind and their survival; they even ignored the pleas for help during the conflict with the blind hoodlums; If they end up killing each other, so much the better, there will be fewer of them, (Saramago 138). The seeing kept the blind isolated at all times and at the event of any suspicious movement, they would shoot. Because of the fear that came with being put into an extreme situation, the seeing killed irrationally, blaming the blind. The face of a blind man. Fear made the soldiers blood freeze, and fear drove him to aim his weapon and release a blast of gunfire at close range, (Saramago 75). The seeing also cruelly stated, It would have been better to let them die of hunger. When the beast dies, the poison dies with it, (Saramago 84). The conflict of the seeing versus the blind shows that, when the seeing were in a crisis, their animalistic sides took over and led them to act upon fear and the need to survive. Their actions also led to the destruction of society. Because the government and army acted irrationally out of fear for their sight, it led to panic and chaos which shows that they were not doing their true jobs, to take care of all their citizens. The second conflict that took place was the blind versus the blind hoodlums within the asylum. The group of blind hoodlums were primitive to begin with because of their setup as a gang following one pack leader. The blind hoodlums, who had already transformed and whose actions were led by hunger and desires, stole all the food intended for the blind internees and demanded for valuables, and later on women, as payment for food. Their sexual desires took over and led them to beat, rape, and even kill women. This conflict led the other blind internees to act back for their survival. The doctors wife was led to commit the murder of the leader, and another woman was led to burn down the asylum in an

attempt to kill off the blind thugs. The conflict of the blind versus the blind in the asylum brought out the worst in the internees when their actions were driven by the need to survive. The last conflict that took place was, again, the blind versus the blind. This time, it took place outside of the asylum where there was a race to survive. Outside of the asylum there was no organization of a society, that already having been devoured by the terror and commotion that took place during the spread of blindness. People were clawing at each other for food and traveled in packs, only caring about the pack members and not even trying to get some sort of system organized. Throughout the novel, the main conflict was humanity versus the white blindness, which in turn led to the other conflicts, bringing out the worst in man and devastating humanity. Excerpt: The author describes the physical destruction of society after the white blindness had spread: The rubbish on the streets, which appears to be twice as much as yesterday, the human excrement, that from before semi-liquified by the torrential downpour of rain, mushy or runny, the excrement being evacuated at this very minute by these men and women as we pass, fills the air with the most awful stench, like a dense mist through which it is only possible to advance with enormous effort. In a square surrounded by trees, with a statue in the middle, a pack of dogs is devouring a mans corpse, (Saramago 263). This quote shows exactly how the humans had neglected their dignity, and like animals, used the streets in which they lived in, as a latrine. Another description that truly illustrates a chaotic and insecure society created by the conversion of humans into animals is: along a rain-drenched street, amidst rotting litter and human and animal excrement, cars and trucks abandoned any old way, blocking the main thoroughfare, some of the vehicles with their tyres already surrounded by grass, and the blind, the blind, open-mouthed and staring up at the white sky, (Saramago 234). Through these descriptions, the theme can be physically enforced when the images of the situations are being seen in the mind. Recommendation: This book is a definite must read on anyones list! Saramago expertly and accurately depicts humanitys true nature of how they deal with life-threatening situations. We see both ends of the spectrum with regards to the exploration of human nature where on one end, humans selfishness, opportunism and indifference is depicted and on the other end, empathy and endless perseverance. For a new twist on writing style and an elevated level of reading, Blindness will keep you on the edge of your seat pondering about human nature and its capacity for misfortune.