Resumo de Blindness - Jose Saramago

BLINDNESSA review The human heart, its needs and its motives are within the command of Saramago?s pen. On a day like any other a man goes blind in the middle of a busy intersection as he drives his car ?random tragedy- . Soon he is driven to his suburban home by a passerby good Samaritan who pretends to be philanthropic but steals the blind man?s car ?greed-.The blind man waits for his wife as he stumbles around the house recognizing his surroundings in this new world where the only image is that of the whiteness of milk, he can?t see anything else and sits trembling ?fear- The wife comes in and joins him deciding to take him to the doctor, consternated ?love-. The doctor?s office is full but the old man, the little boy and the young woman in the waiting room let the new blind man go in first ?generosity-. The doctor is amazed to see this man?s condition, a new medical rarity never seen. The doctor consults with colleagues and promises to help the blind man ?vocation-. By morning, they are all blind. The ministry of health promises to study the case and collects all the new blind to take into the ministry. Instead they are sent to a prison like building where they are kept prisoner ?deceit- . The building is arranged like a Portuguese military headquarters. When the blind try to collect their meals, they are forbidden contact with the outside world and must wait until their trays are laid outside the gates to protect the healthy ?opression-. Some victims who disobey are killed on the spot ?cruelty-. Once in the seclusion, the blind come together as a group and try to console each other. We the readers are saved of the blindness by a single person who entered the building and stayed but she is not blind, she is the doctor?s wife, who is ultimately our mother figure, our savior, the witness of the events and the victor of evil. All flavors of human evil single file in this theater. A gang of thugs take control of the place, demand payment in cash, later take all possessions, steal and ration the food and in what appears to be the most depravated of all their acts they establish a brothel using all the able women with desirable bodies as examined by palpation to function as prostitutes in the evil gang?s private harem. The rest of the blind in fear, worn out, don?t fight for the women who in turn give themselves out to save everyone else ?selflesness-. The lust and excess goes on daily, adding degradation to the existence of these wretches that are malnourished and live in a pig-sty where excrement is found everywhere. The thugs are further aided by a real blind man who was thrown in with the rest and has the advantage of a lifetime of blind experience ?conspiracy-. The evil gang subjects the rest of the blind to daily abuses. In a fantastic pre-climax, our witness, the doctor?s wife, kills the evil leader stabbing him with a pair of scissors in the neck ?bravery- just as he is raping a woman.She then sets the place on fire and a massive escape sets in, our Prometheus has arrived. The blind come out and stumble throughout the city to search for the rags that are left of their existence. Nothing matters anymore, all values of the society have changed overnight, the scale that measures the worth of material things is broken. Slowly, some return to their homes and in the end, like a long nightmare, they recover their sight and try to re-build from their ashes. This book is like an encyclopedia of the human tragedy. It represents a massive metaphor for the human inertia towards oppression, xenophobia. The horrors inflicted on these blind are the same that have been applied to groups of men and women throughout the history of mankind. The abuses and killings that culminate when there you find a line that separates the destitute from the powerful. Jews, blacks, native Indians, gays, christians , muslims, foreigners, tutsi, hutu, Australian aborigines etc, etc,All these unfortunate wretches of all denominations are ablypainted in the grime landscape drawn by the brushstrokes of Saramago?s masterful pen.

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