Oblivion within the Empire In pages 70-72 ( “The barbarians stand outlined against the sky above us...too late now”) of J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians which is the selected passage in which the magistrate’s blindness creates a denial of responsibility. “Blindness” reveals how the magistrate believes he is superior over the barbarians, ironically similar to a trait Joll has. However, he feels an inability to dehumanize and torture the “others”. The passage starts out with the magistrate, his men and what she is referred to in the book, barbarian girl traveling up the slope towards the horsemen. The girl has to make a choice of joining her people or returning back to the settlement. The magistrate wants her to return to the settlement …show more content…
A theme that interested me came up in class ties in with the metaphorical use of blindness. Ignorance can make one disregard responsibilities. Magistrate mentions, “What else is there to tell?”(71) to the girl when approaching her people. Her smiling indicates how she sees through the magistrates facade of returning her back to her people. Here, the text implies that once again the magistrate is oblivious to the fact the girl could go into depth of how badly the Empire tortured her but does not because she sees the nobility in the magistrate. However, he never looks at the barbarian girl as a human being and he has blinded himself as what the empire is …show more content…
The use of pain and pressure to announce the truth signifies the ignorance and dehumanization behind the empire. The magistrate is blind to his own self and believes bringing the girl back to civilization is noble and humane when the girl sees the magistrate clearly as the guilty representative of a power driven empire that embodies injustice and dehumanizes all inhabitants. This ties in with the whole “ignorance is bliss” idea. The magistrate is doing exactly what the phrase defines. He is oblivious to what the empire creates and does to manipulate others, therefore he does not worry or care about it. He also defines the girl as a “barbarian” implying how she is not truly human and something the magistrate could make his time worthwhile. The metaphorical use of blindness creates an ironical interpretation to critique the empire and its
Nevertheless, Bertrande knows these self-centred intentions, when put into action, will ultimately be reflected by the displeasure and distress of her children and the Mesnie. ‘I am destroying the happiness of my family. And why? … to free myself from the deceit which was consuming and killing me.’ Bertrande’s strong desire to free herself from the cunning of Arnaud du Tilh inevitably brought considerations of the Mesnie and her children to mind. ‘Her affection for her kindred rose about her in a wall implacable as stone’ as she was ‘condemned to solitude’ knowing the hurt her accusations against Arnaud inflicted upon the mesnie. Furthermore, the drawn out process of the trial brought ‘heart-breaking uncertainty,’ with Lewis clearly indicating through this use of language Bertrande’s awareness of the affect of her actions upon others.
The theme in the story of being able to see without sight is revealed through the characters in the story "Cathedral." The husband is very judgmental, self-centered and shows a lack of knowledge about blind people. This is obvious when he states, "My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind move slowly and never laugh (1152). The husband is so quick to judge and thinks he already knows everything about blind people and how they are, so he makes it clear he was not looking forward to the blind man being in his house ...
Blindness and vision are used as motifs in the play "Oedipus Rex," which are also the tragic flaws of the hero. Vision refers to both literal and metaphorical blindness. The frequent references to sight, light, eyes, and perception are used throughout the play. When Oedipus refuses to believe Tiersias, Tiersias responds by saying "have you eyes" and "do you not see your own damnation?" Tiersias also says "those now clear-seeing eyes shall then be darkened." The reference to sight has a double meaning. Oedipus is famed for his clear-sightedness and quick comprehension. He was able to "see" the answer to the Sphinx's riddle, yet ironically, he lacks the ability to see the truth about his own identity. Oedipus has become the very disease he wishes to remove from Thebes.
...aracter in the novel has, the novel ends with him “feeling stupid.” (Coetzee, 156) The girl is gone and the conflict between the empire and the barbarians rages on; the magistrate still does not have all the answers for the world that is crumbling around him. Still, he will presumably continue to search, as Coetzee largely leaves the novel open-ended. For the magistrate however, it is not his destination that is important, but his journey. During his journey he learns a lot about the nature of humanity, and about the nature of the conflict between empire and subject. Ultimately peace will not be achieved between the empire and the barbarians until each side fully recognizes the humanity of the other side, the same way the magistrate came to recognize the humanity of the girl.
Although, it is obvious throughout the story, that the Narrators views of blind people has changed, -
Throughout Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, there are many references to sight, blindness, and seeing the truth. Characters, such as Tiresias, are able to accurately predict what Oedipus’ fate will be through their power to see the truth in a situation. Oedipus maintains a pompous and arrogant personality throughout the play as he tries to keep control of the city of Thebes and prove the speculations about his fate as falsities. Ironically, although Tiresias is physically blind, he is able to correctly predict how Oedipus’ backstory will unfold, while other characters, such as Jocasta and Oedipus are oblivious to the truth even though they can physically see. Thus, we can conclude that the power of “seeing the truth” deviates greatly from the power of sight in reality and can lead to an expedited fate or a detrimental occurrence.
These classic tropes are inverted in King Lear, producing a situation in which those with healthy eyes are ignorant of what is going on around them, and those without vision appear to "see" the clearest. While Lear's "blindness" is one which is metaphorical, the blindness of Gloucester, who carries the parallel plot of the play, is literal. Nevertheless, both characters suffer from an inability to see the true nature of their children, an ability only gained once the two patriarchs have plummeted to the utter depths of depravity. Through a close reading of the text, I will argue that Shakespeare employs the plot of Gloucester to explicate Lear's plot, and, in effect, contextualizes Lear's metaphorical blindness with Gloucester's physical loss of vision.
When defining the word blindness, it can be interpreted in various ways. Either it can be explained as sightless, or it can be carefully deciphered as having a more complex in-depth analysis. In the novel Blindness, Jose Saramago depicts and demonstrates how in an instant your right to see can be taken in an instant. However, in this novel, blindness is metaphorically related to ‘seeing’ the truth beyond our own bias opinions.
The most important idea that is conveyed in the story is summed up in two sentences, near the end of the story, "There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination".
In Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the unnamed narrator shows us, through the use motifs such as blindness and invisibility and symbols such as women, the sambo doll, and the paint plant, how racism and sexism negatively affect the social class and individual identity of the oppressed people. Throughout the novel, the African American narrator tells us the story of his journey to find success in life which is sabotaged by the white-dominated society in which he lives in. Along his journey, we are also shown how the patriarchy oppresses all of the women in the novel.
...refers, instead to vision on a more figurative level. Sophocles speaks to this kind of "blindness" when Teiresias states, "You whose vision is straight shall be blind" (ln 419, p.127). Achieving this level of insight may well be an impossible task. In our attempt we may always hear the laughter that plagues Al-Hakim's Teiresias, mocking laughter that has dropped from heaven "since the beginning creation" (124). Understanding the relationship of Teiresias in each play to the truth (its conveyance, its creation), may help us to determine our own proximity to this same elusive and dangerous goal, the truth.
This theme goes hand in hand with the theme portrayed in Hills Like White Elephants. In the story the narrator, whose name is never mentioned, has something against his wife’s blind friend, Robert, due to the fact that he cannot see. Robert visits the narrator and the narrator’s wife for company. It seems that the narrator had a preconceived idea that all blind people are boring, depressed, stupid, and are barely even human at all based on the fact that they cannot see the world. Robert, although he is blind, is a caring and outgoing person who is extremely close with the narrator’s wife. The fact that Robert is extremely close with the narrator’s wife should be reason enough for the narrator to accept him as a person, but he is a cold and shallow person with no friends. His relationship with his wife is lacking good communication and seems very bland. Robert’s wife recently passed away, but their relationship was deep and they were truly in love with each other. The narrator was blind to how a woman could work with, sleep with, be intimate with, and marry Robert as has he talks about how he felt sorry for her. The narrator is superficial and does not understand true love or
People can be “blinded” to the truth. The answer to their question or solution to their problem may have been obvious. Yet, they could not "see" the answer. They were blinded to the truth. Associations have been made between being blind and enlightened. A blind person is said to have powers to see invisible things. They "see" into the future. The blind may not have physical sight, but they have another kind of vision. In Sophocles' King Oedipus, Teiresias, the blind prophet, presents the truth to King Oedipus and Jocasta. Oedipus has been blinded to the truth his whole life. When he does find the truth, he loses his physical vision. Because of the truth, Oedipus blinds himself. Jocasta was blind to the true identity of Oedipus. Even when she found out the truth, she refused to accept it. In this case, those who are blind ultimately do have a higher vision - the truth.
J.M Coetzee’s, Disgrace translates David Lurie’s lack of compassion for women; some may say he cared about them. Consequently, he was only merely pacifying his conscience. What is evident in the novel was the power struggle David encountered throughout the book with mainly the female characters. This story touches on a few moments when different characters experience the disgrace. Moreover, what may catch one 's attention was the sexual violation, experienced by Melanie Isaacs and Lucy Lurie. Even though one latest for a couple of weeks and the other came and went in a blink of an eye, it resonates how two different situations are resulting in the same outcome. These two pivotal moments in the story, hold true to the definition of rape. The
Alice Munro gives a good example of the meaning of this in her story "How I Met My Husband". The theme of this story is under certain circumstances people can sometimes be blind to the truth.