Blindness in Literature

I will be examining the role of blindness in literature. Blindness in literature is usually figurative and not literal. Most characters that are afflicted with blindness suffer from not literal blindness where they can’t see anything but figurative blindness. Figurative blindness refers to blindness that is not literal. For example, Willie Starks in All the Kings Men is figuratively blind as he is blinded by his political ambitions. Figurative blindness is usually caused by some aspect of a character’s life that is so overwhelming and important that it blocks out everything else. Figurative blindness usually leads to the downfall of the characters who are afflicted with it. Because this figurative blindness is overwhelming and causes a character to block out everything else, it is usually very destructive. The destructive nature of figurative blindness is a direct consequence of the fact that a character afflicted with blindness can only think and “see” the overwhelming thing whatever it is. Because of this, the character will ignore all other important aspects of his life. Let’s examine the case with Angel Clare. Angel’s blindness was brought on by Tess’s revelation of her past with Alec and her child Sorrow. Her past is so devastating to Angel that he becomes blinded to her love towards him. Prior to Tess’s confession, Angel and Tess are madly in love with each other. Thinking that love is blind, Angel rejects Tess’s attempts to reveal her past before they became married. However, Tess’s confession disrupts the picture-perfect love between Angel and Tess by forming a barrier that blinds Angel from realizing Tess’s love towards him. In his blind nature, he basically abandons Tess and travels to South America to try to set up a farm for three years. After three years of hard labor, he finally decides to return home. In the meantime, these three years were unbearably painful to Tess. Facing much hardship and not being able to communicate with Angel, she is convinced by Alec that Angel has abandoned her. With Alec’s constant temptations, Tess finally succumbs and reluctantly marries Alec. It is important to understand that it was Angel’s blindness that causes this. In his absence, Tess is too prideful to ask his family for help and her letters aren’t being replied by Alec. Her hardships and lack of communication with Angel are direct causes for Tess finally marrying Alec. Angel finally realizes how much Tess has gone through in his absence because he finds out that she never asked for help from his family. Angel’s realization effectively removes the blindness that has afflicted Angel. He sets out on a desperate search for Tess. Unfortunately, he finds out that she has married Alec and is distraught after their brief but emotional conversation. After Angel leaves with a heavy heart, Tess kills Alec out of pure hatred for deceiving her. Tess and Angel happily reunite. However, the figurative blindness has already ruined the love between Tess and Angel as Tess gets captured and hanged by the townspeople.

Loneliness

The story loneliness is about a man named Enoch Robinson. Enoch is mentally unstable and very unfortunate. Loneliness begins with a brief description of Enoch’s childhood. Although it is easy to pass over his childhood, his childhood must be carefully examined as it contains many clues about figuring out Enoch Robinson as a person. The earlier parts of the story stated that Robinson grew up in a barn that had windows that were never open. The windows serve as a medium for Enoch and the real world. Because the windows are shut, Enoch is lonely and cut off from the real world. He is not able to successfully develop his real world and people skills. This translated into his high school life as Enoch was described to be a very timid and silent high school student. As life went on, Enoch decided he wanted to pursue art so he enrolled in a French art school. He also started hanging out with the artist group. When the artists convened and discussed art, Enoch was unable to. The story says that Enoch was simply too excited to get his words out. But he had this burning desire to speak and voice his opinions to these artists. After awhile, Enoch became sick of the fact that he couldn’t talk and express his views. Perhaps this is the precise reason for Enoch creating imaginary people. He started to create imaginary friends who would be completely understanding of Enoch. Among his imaginary friends, Enoch had everything he wished for. He could now be his egotistical child self and boss all of his imaginary friends around. He would have this “absurd air of importance”. This air of importance is what he was missing all his life. From his childhood to his coming of age, he never experienced what it was like to be important and to be heard. This changed once Enoch started creating imaginary friends. He was genuinely happy and satisfied with them because he finally felt what it was like to be important. Satisfaction led him to believe that he didn’t need anyone else in his world so he stopped hanging out with the artists and inviting them over to have art discussions. In his own world, Enoch was the all-important figure he wanted to be in real life. But happiness can only be temporarily forced. Sooner or later, something had to shatter his world. One day, a woman comes to his apartment where Enoch decides to tell her everything. This obviously included his imaginary friends. He became extremely angry with her because he realized that she wasn’t like his imaginary friends where they could be controlled at will and she couldn’t. This must have been a harsh reminder for Enoch as all his imaginary friends followed the woman when she left his apartment. His imaginary friends never came back and that put an abrupt end to Enoch’s perfect world where he reigned supreme. He then went back to Winesburg as an old and defeated man.

Grotesques

Winesburg, Ohio can be classified as a collection of short stories. The novel takes place in the fictional town in Ohio called Winesburg. The story doesn’t really have a main character. The closest character that resembles a main character is George Willard. George Willard is a reporter for a local newspaper. The novel begins with a prologue where an unnamed man is obsessed with his theory of grotesques. As he is sleeping, he sees everyone that he has ever met as grotesques in his dreams. After waking up from this sleep, this man writes down everything he saw and rambles on for hundreds of pages in a book called The Book of Grotesques. The old man claims that there are numerous “beautiful” truths in this world and that all of them are valid. The problem arises when someone tries to live by only one truth. This makes them distorted and transforms them into grotesques. This prologue is what connects all the different stories in the novel even though the stories sometimes seem to have no relation to each other. Every single story in the novel revolves around a character who is a grotesque because they only believe in one truth. An example is the story revolving around Wash Williams. A fat and unattractive man, he tells George of his past. He claims that he was handsome and lean in the old days when he was married to his wife. But he found out that she was cheating on him so he left her and went to a different town. One day, his mother in law invited both him and her daughter to her house. Thinking that his wife was going to apologize, he reluctantly decided to go to his mother in law’s house. When he was there, he found out that his wife and her mother conceived a despicable plan of trying to make him forgive his wife by using sex as a tool. This made him infuriated as he then believed that all women were despicable. From that moment on, he referred to all women as “bitches”. This is the one “truth” that he decided to believe in and it made him into a grotesque as he became obese and anti social. But let’s examine the “truth” that the unnamed author talks about in the prologue. He claims that there are many different truths that are all legitimate and people only become grotesques if and only if they only believe in one truth.  Does that mean if Wash had believed in another truth in conjunction with the one that claims all women are despicable he would have been not become a grotesque? I think that the definition of truth that is described in the prologue is too vague to determine the answer to this question. What happens if Wash Williams believes in two completely different but both “negative” truths?  In my opinion, Wash Williams would have still become a grotesque even if the truths were completely different. 

Martin and Pangloss

Voltaire uses foil characters in Candide as a tool to emphasize his theme. I will take a look at the foil characters Pangloss and Martin in this novel. These two characters couldn’t be more different. If Pangloss was north, Martin would be south. They are polar opposites. Pangloss is so confident in his optimism theory which states that this world is the best of all possible worlds while Martin’s personal experiences convinced him that this world is only filled with evil. Their opposite philosophies can both be traced back to each character’s history. Pangloss was a mentor for the noble in a German castle. The nobles really did enjoy a sheltered life filled with luxury and lavishness. Enjoying the best foods, services, and respect, the nobles perhaps might have a life that is only possible in the best of all possible worlds. As a direct observer to this kind of lifestyle, Pangloss started to form his optimism theory stating that this is the best of all possible worlds. On the other hand, Martin’s tragic past shaped his pessimistic philosophy. His side of the story is understandable as well. He was robbed by his wife and even beaten by his own son. On top of all this, he was even persecuted by the church. Based on his life, he confidently confided in his pessimism theory. Unlike all the other characters in the novel, Martin is actually somewhat believable because he is highly doubtful of everything. This pessimism and doubtful-nature allows him to see through the Parisian con artists and help Candide out. He is also more intellectual and realistic than let’s say a character like Pangloss. However, he’s not completely believable either because his pessimism theory is too extreme. For example, he inaccurately predicts Cacambo’s nature and behavior. When Candide entrusts his loyal side kick Cacambo with the precious stones, Martin told Candide that Cacambo would run away with the money and never come back. His rationale can be justified by his past. If his own wife could rob him, then someone unrelated could definitely rob him as well. However, Martin had miscalculated Cacambo’s loyalty. Cacambo ends up returning to Candide with all the gold. Although the character Martin has flaws, his voice reflects that of Voltaire the most. Voltaire was known for his pessimistic nature. Thus, Voltaire uses Martin as a means to which he can state his own views and philosophies. Even though Martin acts as a voice medium for Voltaire, both Martin’s extreme pessimism and Pangloss’s extreme optimism are both flawed. When Pangloss and Martin are juxtaposed, the flaws of both philosophies come into light as one is too pessimistic and the other is too optimistic. In the conclusion of the novel, Candide realizes that wondering about which philosophy governs life is a waste and that people should “cultivate the garden” which means that they should ignore the philosophies and just live their lives.

Candide

Candide is a satirical social commentary Voltaire used to voice his views in the 18th century. Voltaire wrote this book during the Age of Enlightenment. Throughout the novel, Voltaire satirizes many aspects of European life during this era through the naïve and simple protagonist Candide and his ever optimistic mentor Pangloss. From religion to the aristocracy, Voltaire takes a stab at various aspects of medieval European life. He also indirectly states that life in 18th century Europe was filled with corruption and flaws. The novel starts out with Candide being banned from the castle after kissing Cunegonde. Then the novel erratically moves forward with different tragic stories. Candide is then forced into military service and almost dies as a result of attempted escape. He then reunites with his former mentor Pangloss. Pangloss then tells Candide of the ensuing events after his departure. Then they travel to Lisbon and the city is devastated by fire, earthquake, and tsunamis. This event was a mirror image of the real 1755 Lisbon earthquake. This event nearly wiped out the entire city as this earthquake was one of the deadliest earthquakes ever. After this destructive earthquake shattered the city, Pangloss still maintained his optimism theory that this world is the best of all worlds. At this point in the novel, Candide is still naïve enough to believe in Pangloss’s theory. However, he slowly begins to realize that Pangloss’s theory is flawed as he experiences many more tragic events. I think that Pangloss represents the overly optimistic critics Voltaire faced during his lifetime while Candide represents the immature and naïve common people. An important philosophy Pangloss believes is that all the events in this world happen for the best outcome. On the surface, it seems like this philosophy only refers to this world being the best of all worlds. However, it has a deeper meaning that free will is not an absolute necessity since all the events in this world have to occur for the best outcome. Voltaire is strongly opposed to this idea as he believes that human free will is an absolute necessity. He conveys his views through Candide as he rejects Pangloss’s overly optimistic theory at the end of the novel. Being as naïve as he is, Candide somehow believed in this optimistic theory throughout the novel even though he directly witnessed thousands of men needlessly dying during war, villages getting slaughtered, women being constantly raped, and natural disaster seeming to strike at every opportunity it gets. He finally begins to change his views and reject this silly optimism theory after stumbling onto El Dorado. Because El Dorado is a utopia where everything is perfect, Candide directly sees that Pangloss’s optimism theory only applies within a utopia like El Dorado. Now that he has seen a perfect world, he can now compare the real world to it and realizes that Pangloss’s theory can not be applied to the outside world. At the very end of the novel, Candide states that “we must cultivate our garden.” This means that he believes people shouldn’t believe in any single philosophy that governs the universe and life but instead they should try to find out on their own.

All the Kings Men

The character Jack in this novel is a troubled man who seems to always want to escape reality. He's like a person who is trapped in his past and doesn't want to get out. Perhaps the present is too painful and unplesant or the past is too impactful. Whatever it is, he's a character who is living in the past. He is infatuated with sleep as he uses sleep as one way to escape the present. This is apparent as he always talks about his dreams. This relates to the Great Sleep as sleep is used to escape responsibilty and reality. The Great Sleep talks about dreaming of sleep and just waking up to sleep again. This unhealthy infatuation with sleep results from Jack's desire to constantly escape reality. Similiar to the Great Sleep, Jack's belief in the Great Twitch also shows his desire to escape reality. When Jack discovers that Anne, the love of his life, has been having an affair with Willie, he suddenly flees to California. Their affair was so unexpected that it devastated Jack. Anne had been a symbol of his pleaseant past and by stripping away this link to his past, the pain was unberable. Although Jack ended up marrying Lois, he still never got over his love for Anne. He stated in the book that he married Lois just for her looks and once he started to analyze her as a person, he became disgusthed. Fleeing to California is another way Jack is attempting to escape reality as the reality is too miserable and painful. During this journey, there are allusions made to Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny was the American belief that Americans were destined to conquer and rule all of America during the 18th century. During the era when Manifest Destiny was popular, Americans had not conquered the western part of America so Jack's escape to the west is definitely an allusion to Manifest Destiny. Symbolically, he was conquering the west. Also this journey leads Jack to believe in the Great Twitch. On the way back from Califronia, he picks up a man who has a twitch in his eye. This leads Jack to conclude that life is like an involutary twitch. Basically, the Great Twitch is the belief that all the things in life are uncontrollable and are similiar to involunatry twitches. One can furthur conclude that because life is uncontrollable, life is without purpose. In essence, life is predetermined and one can not control the outcome of his or her life. This theory allows Jack to escape reality because by believing in the Great Twitch, he technically had no control over the outcome of his relationship with Anne. Also, he had no control over Anne having an affair with his boss and that this was all fate. This ideology allowed him to cope with reality in a sense although he was technically escaping reality. In essence, the Great Twitch ideology allowed Jack to avoid all blame and guilt as he believed that he had no control over what was going on. This is a dangerous ideology because it allows one to avoid guilt and blame while they could've actually controlled the outcome.

Tess of the D'urbervilles

As I read the novel Tess of the D'urbervilles, I slowly realized the theme that was encompassing all the events that had occured in the novel. The theme was that love is not blind in the face of extreme tragedy. Although Tess and Angel had sincerely become madly in love, Tess's tragic past essentially shattered their love. Her tragic past also reminds us, as the readers, of the fact that no one can really escape their pasts. Even though Tess had tried on numerous occasions to tell Angel of her tragic past, he had refused to hear her saying that whatever it is he could forgive and forget. She even decided to put a note underneath his door that explained her past but I guess it was fate that he didn't get to read the note. Had he just read that note or allowed Tess to share her past, they might've not become married and their situation wouldn't have been so tragic. Whatever it was that prevented Angel from hearing about Tess's past, he was so confident that their love could overcome anything. This was clearly not the case as once Angel actually heard about Tess's past, he became distraught. It was her past that ultimatley led to Tess's arrest and death at the conclusion of the novel. If love was really blind, Angel should've been able to disregard and forget her past but it was so overwhelming and extremely tragic that it caused him to leave Tess and be alone for a couple years. The direct consequence of Angel's actions was Tess reluctantly becoming married to Alec after he constantly tempted her with financial support. During Angel's absence, Tess desperatley pleaded to Angel to forgive her and expressed her love towards him through her letters. We as the readers find out later that Angel had never gotten them and it only adds more to the tragedy. When Angel finally returns home and finds out that Tess was too proud and stubborn to ask for financial help from his family, he realizes the hardships Tess must've faced while he was abroad. He immediatley embarks on a journey to find Tess and when he does it's already too late. Once Tess sees Angel, her long hibernated love is rejuvenated and this ultimately causes her to kill Alec and run away. However, the townspeople find both of them in the end when all seems to be happy and Tess is hanged. This shows that love is not blind and can "expire". This story's tragic nature is only enhanced by the fact that both Angel and Tess at one time thought love is blind. They both find out the hard way and they both pay a heavy cost. This theme applies to life as well. Love isn't really blind and love can disintegrate because of someone's past. Even if both parties involved in a love affair sincerely believe they can overcome the other person's flaws and pasts, if the flaw or past is too overwhelming then the love disintegrates. This is the realistic view on love the author is trying to portray throughout this novel.