Blindness and Lord of the Flies

The novel Blindness deals with a fictional crisis in which hundreds of people are stricken with a sudden milky-white blindness. Due to the condition being contagious, the infected are rushed to quarantine in an old mental hospital. The conditions quickly become inhumane, with guards that parallel the SS and sanitary conditions that seem unimaginable. To this point in the book (p. 186), many internees have died from various causes, and an uprising has made itself the only source of provisions, forcing sex slavery on the women if anyone else wants to eat.

Lord of the Flies was published in 1954, long before Blindness was first published in 1995. The main characters in Lord of the Flies (we'll call it LOTF from now on) are Ralph, Jack and Piggy. They are three out of a group of boys who survived a plane crash on a secluded tropical island. Incidentally, if you haven't read the book before and plan to, I'll probably spoil the story a little from now on. Ralph is elected as leader of the group, and he decides that Jack should be in charge of the boys who will gather the food. Piggy is Ralph's right-hand man, more or less. Ralph and Piggy find a conch shell that becomes a signal of power among the group. Inevitably, their improvised government falls apart, with Jack leading a rebellion against Ralph and Piggy's posse. The climax of the story occurs when one of Jack's followers rolls a boulder off a cliff to shut him up in the short term, but crushing and killing him in the long term. Their warfare continues until Ralph finds himself running for his life from Jack's blood-thirsty tribe. He reaches a beach, where he runs into a Naval officer - their rescuer. The boys immediately realize the gravity of what has happened and how the most dire of situations turn them against their friends to the point of murder and savagery.


At least so far, Blindness seems to be a near copy of LOTF. In both books, circumstances out of their control placed a group of otherwise civil people in an environment in which they are forced to fight for their own survival. In both books, any fair civil order that is attempted crumbles under the weight of human nature. In LOTF, Ralph and Piggy are seen as emotional and moral leaders among others who are weaker and some who are evil. In Blindness, the doctor and his wife fill this role. In LOTF, a quick turn of events renders an end to all the power struggles and exploitation that has developed. It is reasonable to assume that if all the internees' sight is restored, and they are released, that they would be in the same situation - shamed to no end of the beasts they became under duress.

What should we think in light of these parallels? Is Blindness a shameless ripoff of classic piece of Literature? Is the theme broad enough that differing details are enough to consider the two seperate stories? I think it's a combination. I don't think it is entirely a shameless ripoff, but it is flirting with earning that title. Personally, I don't think a narrow theme such as this allows for multiple renditions, but that opinion is supremely subjective. You can draw your own conclusion. While I think the situations portrayed in Blindness give cause for reflection and deep thought, I think they shouldn't be allowed to usurp LOTF, with which, as an author, Saramago should be familiar. I think he should take pause in the future before profiting on another LA Times Book of the Year that is really little more than a modern rerun of classic literature.