During class today, I read the back cover of Blindness and wanted to comment on the end of the summary. It says “Blindness is a powerful portrayal of man’s worst appetites and weaknesses—and man’s ultimately exhilarating spirit.” I think now, after reading all of Saramago’s ideas throughout the book, that this quote is wrong and Saramago was talking more about the frailty or destruction of the human spirit.
A novel that uplifted the human spirit, I think, would have ended either in desolation where humanity still existed or with the triumph of humanity overcoming the illness of blindness. The novel didn’t end like this though, it ended with near chaos and little hope and the situation was ended by something other than the power of humanity and everyone could see again. We have seen many examples in the book of how responsibility and morality are out the window and the future seemed bleak as well. The doctor’s wife says once, “Perhaps humanity will manage to live without eyes, but then it will cease to be humanity”. If no one ever regained his sight and the children of the blind were also blind, I think that most people would die very soon and that eventually some sort of structure would develop but I don’t believe it would ever be the same as society today, there would be different morals and feelings and ideas about the future and this is what I think Saramago is getting at.
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I thought that the quote on the back was right. I think that blindness does portray man's worst appetites and weaknesses. There was a lot of destruction and evil things going on in the novel, but I do not think that it had to have a happy ending to be true. When the quote says that it portrays man's ultimately exhilaration spirit, I think this is true. There were point in the novel where it seemed like the characters should give up, but they did not. It wouldn't have been hard to use the scissors to stab themselves or simply walk out into the open fire of the guards. I think that the last line of the novel where it says "Fear made her quickly lower her eyes. The city was still there" is showing that humanity will be restored. It definitely was a way of showing that the doctor's wife had not gone blind but they phrased it so that it said the city was still there. I think we are left to believe that now that people are able to see, humanity will be restored and people will possibly learn something from all of this. I think that is why the quote on the back cover of the book said that.
I to think that since everyone is beginning to regain their sight, humanity will be restored. As you said above, people will probably learn a valuable lesson from the whole experience. I think that having faith and hope helped people to continue on and keep living and beleiving they would some day regain their sight. If they had lost hope then they would have died. By the doctor's wife being able to see but wishing at times she didn't, it showed readers that although times can be difficult and the world can look cruel and mean, it is always better to be living and alive because the good out weighs the bad. That is my opinion on the whole novel. Be grateful for what you have because when you lose it you will want it back. That is a very popular phrase and I think it fits in with this story. Don't take the little things for granted.
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