This chapter discusses what it means when a character in a novel is blind.
The key points made in the chapter are as follows:
Firstly, a character is only blind if the writer wants him/her to be because there has to be a lot of extra effort to cater for a person with a disability such as blindness. The book makes the point; “Every move that character makes, everything that character says about him or her, has to allow for that lack of sight.”
If a character in a book is blind, the author has purposely determined that disability to make sure that every single reader understands (or at least partially) a certain point the writer is trying to portray. This tells us that the point must be pretty important for the author to have made it a physical attribute, not a symbolic one.
Although the chapter talks about physical blindness, it does mention symbolic blindness. It tells us about how a character can be symbolically blind, meaning that someone may not understand things that others can clearly see (or vice versa). However being symbolically blind is not as effective at getting across a point by being physically blind and so this is used less to get a significant point across to the readers.
Some examples of when a character is blind are:
Opedius. For what you need to know, read about the basics of his myth here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus#Basics_of_the_myth
The novel ‘The Cay’ by Theodore Taylor. Read about the plot here:
http://www.shmoop.com/the-cay/summary.html
The key points made in the chapter are as follows:
Firstly, a character is only blind if the writer wants him/her to be because there has to be a lot of extra effort to cater for a person with a disability such as blindness. The book makes the point; “Every move that character makes, everything that character says about him or her, has to allow for that lack of sight.”
If a character in a book is blind, the author has purposely determined that disability to make sure that every single reader understands (or at least partially) a certain point the writer is trying to portray. This tells us that the point must be pretty important for the author to have made it a physical attribute, not a symbolic one.
Although the chapter talks about physical blindness, it does mention symbolic blindness. It tells us about how a character can be symbolically blind, meaning that someone may not understand things that others can clearly see (or vice versa). However being symbolically blind is not as effective at getting across a point by being physically blind and so this is used less to get a significant point across to the readers.
Some examples of when a character is blind are:
Opedius. For what you need to know, read about the basics of his myth here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus#Basics_of_the_myth
The novel ‘The Cay’ by Theodore Taylor. Read about the plot here:
http://www.shmoop.com/the-cay/summary.html
For your entertainment, here's a video about someone who is 'blind' (Or could be by the end of the video). (This also ticks the box of including a video)
By Alex Timmings