Blind is who cannot see. Blindness, unable to see, perceive the truth. You can be blind with good eyes and you can see while being blind. "The eyes are useless when the mind is blind." A blind man can make us see things we 've never seen before. The metaphor of blindness is used in literature and film to show us how blind the character is at the beginning for after changing and seeing the world the way it really is. In both,
Daniel Alarcon 's story, Republica and Grau and Sean Penn 's movie, "Into the Wild", the main characters change from blind to a state of awareness about the world around us, something happens during the story that makes them change and see the world differently, in their own, original way. They both agree that we are
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He 's just an innocent child, a mama 's boy. One day his father finds him a job. He 's going to work, begging with a blind man at an intersection. He 's there to see people seeing the blind man. His job is to assure people know they can be seen; because, since he 's blind, they know they cannot be seen and if you can’t be seen you don 't feel shame. At the beginning Maico sees the world around him as a beautiful place. For example, when the old man asks him to watch out for thieves as he counts the money at the end of the day the only things Maico sees are: "men hawking newspapers and chalkboards, women with baskets of bread or flowers or fruit, and the very density of people in the area made it seem safe. Everyone had been kind to him so far. A woman his mother’s age gave him a piece of bread with sweet potato because it was his first day. She tended to a few toddlers on the median. They were playing with a stuffed animal, taking turns tearing it to pieces." All these people look so peaceful and kind; there are baskets of fruit and flowers, newspapers, stuffed animals, all positive …show more content…
While they 're eating his mom tells him that she and his father will buy him a new car as a graduation present so he can get rid of the old car that, according to the mother, "it might blow up." They start arguing, Chris doesn 't want a new car " I don 't need a new car, I don’t want a new car. I don 't want anything. […] These things, things, things, things." Ad he says the old car is still working perfectly and that they just want to impress the neighbors. Now he sees the world for what it really is. After the dinner Chris changes and starts his adventure. He gets rid of every document he has and donates all his money to charity. He wants to live like an animal from now on. He takes his car and goes as far as he can. Then he reaches a place and leaves his car behind too. His car gets flooded. Now it 's just him and his backpack. "Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, 'cause 'the West is the best. ' And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization, he flees, and walks alone upon the
“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, it’s what’s inside counts” This quote reminds people about how they should not judge other people from the outside but look deep into their true personalities. Looking from the appearance and how Chris lives, everyone would assume that Chris is a crazy, foolish person and does everything without thinking. If people try to know more about Chris, they would have different perspective. Chris is intelligent, determined, independent and follows what he believes. He went into the wilderness to escape from the society that tries to suppress him and look for the meaning of life.
The narrator is biased against the blind from the beginning. For instance, he stereotypes all blind people thinking they ...
In the story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, the main character, goes through a major personal transformation. At the beginning of the story, his opinions of others are filled with stereotypes, discrimination and prejudice. Through interaction with his wife's blind friend Robert, his attitude and outlook on life changes. Although at first he seemed afraid to associate with a blind man, Robert's outgoing personality left him with virtually no choice. During Robert's visit, he proved to be a normal man, and showed the speaker that by closing his eyes, he could open his mind.
Throughout his journey, Chris devotes himself to nature, discovering the spiritual aspects of an unknown, cold, bleak world. However, when Chris finally
Then Chris abandoned his car because of a flood. So later on he is now walking on foot. Chris also decided to burn all of his money and buried his belongings.
The narrator starts out by reflecting on his wife past and her lengthy relationship with the ‘blind man’. The author uses the motif of blindness to engage the readers and demonstrate that ‘blindness’ is much more that a physical disability as it can also be a state of mind. This is seen as the story progressed and the narrator experienced a different perspective on ‘blindness’ than what he thought. The narrator was definitely not a fan of this ‘blind man’ named Robert. However, Robert was nothing like what the he had imagined; he was a widower, a smoker and he drank occasionally, not to mention well dressed “spiffy” (Carver in Gardner, Lawn, Ridl and Schakel, 2013, p. 303). At one point the narrator mentioned that “his idea
Adaptation to unpredictable conditions is a key force in driving human evolution. The ability to overcome predicaments with poise is one of the greatest assets humans possess. In “The Mind’s Eye”, Oliver Sacks recounts various perspectives of individuals coping with blindness. Each individual took a different path to becoming accustomed to their blindness and each of the case studies showed compensatory mechanism unique to the individual. Throughout the article, Sacks credits each person for playing to their assets because he views adaptability as a person’s capacity to alter their mode of thought in order to fit their circumstance. Although Sacks shows many examples of neuronal plasticity as an adaptation to blindness, he eludes to the impact
The husband in Raymond Carvers “Cathedral” wasn’t enthusiastic about his wife’s old friend, whom was a blind man coming over to spend the night with them. His wife had kept in touch with the blind man since she worked for him in Seattle years ago. He didn’t know the blind man; he only heard tapes and stories about him. The man being blind bothered him, “My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to. (Carver 137)” The husband doesn’t suspect his ideas of blind people to be anything else. The husband is already judging what the blind man will be like without even getting to actually know him. It seems he has judged too soon as his ideas of the blind man change and he gets a better understanding of not only the blind man, but his self as well.
Many people view blindness as a disability, but could these people be blind to their surroundings? Even though the narrator can perfectly see with his eyes, he lacks in understanding awareness. The narrator blindness isn 't physical, like many vision impaired people. His blindness is psychological, and his blindness causes him to become jealous. His blindness blocks his perception of viewing the world in a different way. This only causes him to see the physical attributes of humans, and thus shut off his mindfulness of viewing human personalities. As a result of a closed mind, the narrator doesn 't understand how Robert was able to live with the fact that he was never able to see his wife in the flesh, but the narrator fails to see that Robert vision of his wife was intimate. On the other hand, Robert blindness is physical. This causes Robert to experience the world in a unique manner. Without Robert eyesight, he is able to have a glimpse of a human personality. He uses his disability to paint pictures in his head to experience the world. By putting his psychological blindness aside, the narrator is able to bond with Robert, and he grasps the understanding of opening his eyes for the first time, and this forms a new beginning of a
When most people think of blind people, they tend to picture a person with dark sunglasses, a seeing eye dog, and a walking stick. These are stereotypes and obviously do not remain true in the case of all blind people. In Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral," the main character is jealous and judgmental of his wife’s friend who happens to be a blind man. It is the combination of these attitudes that leads to his own unique “blindness." It is through this initial blindness, that the character gains his greatest vision. The short story “Cathedral'; includes three characters.
In the first paragraph, the narrator also reveals his ignorance. He believes that all blind people are based on only what he has seen in movies, "My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they are led by seeing-eye dogs “(104). The narrator was surprised when he noticed Robert was not like this. The narrator is also surprised when Robert lights a cigarette. He believes blind people don’t smoke because “they couldn’t see the smoke they exhaled” (108). The husband starts to feel more comfortable after this. The three of them sit down for dinner and the husbands is impressed with the how Robert is able to locate his food, cut with a knife, and eat properly. This is where the narrator’s outlook starts to undergo change.
In literature, blindness serves a general significant meaning of the absence of knowledge and insight. In life, physical blindness usually represents an inability or handicap, and those people afflicted with it are pitied. The act of being blind can set limitations on the human mind, thus causing their perception of reality to dramatically change in ways that can cause fear, personal insecurities, and eternal isolation. However, “Cathedral” utilizes blindness as an opportunity to expand outside those limits and exceed boundaries that can produce a compelling, internal change within an individual’s life. Those who have the ability of sight are able to examine and interpret their surroundings differently than those who are physically unable to see. Carver suggests an idea that sight and blindness offer two different perceptions of reality that can challenge and ultimately teach an individual to appreciate the powerful significance of truly seeing without seeing. Therefore, Raymond Carver passionately emphasizes a message that introduces blindness as not a setback, but a valuable gift that can offer a lesson of appreciation and acceptance toward viewing the world in a more open-minded perspective.
All in all, it is interesting how the trials of life can lead a person into an awakening that inspires millions. Many people believe that walking “into the wild” to live off the land and find himself alone in nature was arrogant, foolish and irresponsible. Chris lacks of knowledge about the wild was a major factor in his death. Chris did not plan how he will survive in the wilderness without proper equipments. He misunderstood that he would have no problem in setting in the wild. Chris immature manner and decisions lead him to starvation and ultimately death. If he planned it out in the beginning he would have saved his life.
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.
G. Wells, for its part, paints blindness as a symbol for ignorance in The Country of the Blind. The story starts off with a hiker falling into an enclosed valley. He finds out that not only is the valley inhabited, but its inhabitants are also all blind. Right from the start, the hiker, Nuñez, is certain that he’s superior to all the blind villagers. He repeats in his head that “In the Country of the Blind the One-Eyed Man is King.” (WELLS 4) Unfortunately, he quickly realizes that the inhabitants of the Country of the Blind can’t seem to imagine what “sight” is and they start to believe he has a mental illness. Just before they make him go under surgery to get his eyes removed and cure his “illness”, he finally escapes the Country of the Blind, despite having fallen in love with one of the villagers. Many have analyzed The Country of the Blind as a satire of the political scene of the time when it was written (early 1900s), representing “[…] a free-thinking, non-conformist hero in an oppressive world where all others are metaphorically as well as literally blind.” (BUCHANAN 17) Here, blindness isn’t necessarily related to a lack of humanity or civility, but more so of sign of close-mindedness and ignorance. The blinds in the short story are either unable or unwilling to even imagine there is more to their world that they can’t see or