Loss of Humanity/ Animalistic Behaviors
Through the epidemic of white blindness, even though mysterious, generates a constant constraint of an innovative force of survival with and between every person. Within Blindness, the confrontation by the white blindness establishes a real life situation where people have to live in a cruel barbaric way much different from the world that they knew so well, they have to engage into a new kind of communication, take up a new way of learning, along with creating a new living style (Nashef 21). The white blindness along with brings about a dismantling of humanity to its real nature, therefore animalistic behaviors rise above all others (Nashef 21). Unlike their blindness, the loss of their humanistic nature …show more content…
In the event of “not [wanting to] lose yourself, all morals and values were lost between the individuals, they eventually begin to perform a “sex slave trade” with the women of of other wards to the males in the third ward in return for food, when all valuables had been collected. Amongst the hundreds of the blind there remained some sane individuals that were the first ones to arrive. These were the ones that started to believe “if we cannot live entirely like human beings, at least let us do everything in our power not to live entirely like animals," they began to rethink the way in which they were living, however not enough to factor out the savageness that kept occurring. Moreover, this creates a overall blurred image between both animals and human beings. The excessive mentions of animal imagery create an importance in the novel both implies and enhances the idea of the degradation and loss of morality as well as humanity of how overlooked they are amongst the modern world (Aryan) Blindness illustrates, the deterioration of humanity and morality through analogies created between the people and animals. In other words, the novel gives animal like characteristics to the individuals, eventually this becomes intensified through the dominating factors of the …show more content…
However, there still are a few individuals remaining, who make decisions that demonstrate humanitarian sacrifice for the greater good of the all other individuals. José Saramago writes this story not only in the manner of social decay, but also to illustrate the emergence of a new morality that only becomes present in the most desperate of circumstances (Adrian). The existence of this type of morality in a damaged society such as this one, and the consequences that come from right and wrong end up displaying a majority of the recurring theme that show up in most of Saramago’s books (Adrian). Even after days of living within the walls of the unsanitary and terrible conflictive conditions, the ophthalmologist’s wife still remains to have a desire to help the blind in need, however she herself struggles with both her and her husband in this proposition of helping. Even her husband that cannot see what is going one tells her to be mindful, "of the consequences, they will almost certainly try to turn you into their slave, ... you will be at the beck and call of everyone... don't think that blindness has made us better people, It hasn't made us any worse, We're