“With great power, comes great responsibility,” is a classic phrase from Spiderman. Yet, this phrase came to me right after I finished reading Jose Saramago’s Blindness. The phrase refered the doctor’s wife, the only person with perfect eyesight when everyone lost theirs. Therefore, she will be the ONE who lead them through the whiteness of their blindness. And also be their conscience.
I bought the book in 2004, it rested on my bookshelf with other TBR since. And then one night, as I browsed through my bookshelf in search for something to read, my finger rested on the spine of the book. I took it out and started to read. I spent two consecutive nights to finish the book, which I read until 3am to 4am for two nights. I couldn't help but exclaimed: What a brilliant story!
The book opened with an ordinary day, when traffic congestion causing the traffic on the road almost stagnant (it sounds so KL), a man's car was not moving after the traffic light turned green. The man was yelling in his car: I'm blind! I'm blind!
There marks the beginning of the blindness epidemic in an unnamed city. People went blind without any symptom or feeling any pain. The "white sickness" had plunged them into a total whiteness world.
I bought the book in 2004, it rested on my bookshelf with other TBR since. And then one night, as I browsed through my bookshelf in search for something to read, my finger rested on the spine of the book. I took it out and started to read. I spent two consecutive nights to finish the book, which I read until 3am to 4am for two nights. I couldn't help but exclaimed: What a brilliant story!
The book opened with an ordinary day, when traffic congestion causing the traffic on the road almost stagnant (it sounds so KL), a man's car was not moving after the traffic light turned green. The man was yelling in his car: I'm blind! I'm blind!
There marks the beginning of the blindness epidemic in an unnamed city. People went blind without any symptom or feeling any pain. The "white sickness" had plunged them into a total whiteness world.
The first blind man went to see an eye doctor, the doctor went blind, then the girl in the clinic went blind, so did the others.
As soon as the epidemic broke out, they were taken away from their house and quarantined in an abandon asylum. They couldn’t leave in whatsoever condition.
The power relationship inside the asylum was a reflection of the outside world. I think I understand the reason Saramago chose blindness to be the disease in this fable. Loosing eyesight is a person’s biggest fear, because one must learn a new way of life.
The doctor revealed that, the social relation of people was established based on the fact that people can see each other. This relationship would changed once every people went blind.
Of course there will be villains, even when people went blind. The villains seized the only resource, food, and urged the others exchanged food with their money or valuables. The oppressed will have to obey at first, they will have forced to fight when the crucial moment comes, in order to be free.
When less and less food can be found; and more and more people died of starving and diseases, the first blind man recovered, so did the doctor and the others.
The doctor revealed that, the social relation of people was established based on the fact that people can see each other. This relationship would changed once every people went blind.
Of course there will be villains, even when people went blind. The villains seized the only resource, food, and urged the others exchanged food with their money or valuables. The oppressed will have to obey at first, they will have forced to fight when the crucial moment comes, in order to be free.
When less and less food can be found; and more and more people died of starving and diseases, the first blind man recovered, so did the doctor and the others.
Everyone was happy to recover from the 'white sickness', the sound of exclaimanations and laughter could be heard everywhere. Will the citizen of the city learn from this particular 'doomsday-like' event? or they'll just forgotten their experience when everything go back on the right track again?
