Blindness
Humans and animals have been companions for thousands of years. At the surface, it may seem like a purely biologically symbiotic relationship, but while the symbiosis is true, the relationship is deeper than that. Whether either participant is concious of it or not, animals provide a number of emotional and psychological benefits for the human, and vice versa. In the works of fiction we are studying, this relationship is no clearer than in Jose Saramago's novel Blindness, and Sinclair Ross's collection of linked short stories, The Lamp at Noon and Other Stories. In both these works, the animals symbolize human's extreme need for companionship at their neediest times. In Blindness, the dog of tears meets up with the main character, the doctor's wife, when she finds herself lost on her way back from the supermarket. She is walking through a series of streets which all look the same, and realizes she is lost. Due to her extremely low amount of energy at this point, she breaks down for the first time in the book and cries. This is the lowest point of the doctor's wife's confidence and hope: "...drained of any strength, of all strength, she burst into tears" (234). A pack of semi-wild dogs is nearby, and one of them, the dog of tea
Isabel throws the boy off to teach him an important lesson in respect, in a time when he needs it the most: nipping his overconfidence in the bud. The dog of tears does not and will never judge the doctor's wife. like a team of reliable old ploughhorses. The doctor's wife loves her husband and her human friends, and trusts them, but the dog of tears provides her with a kin, another pair of seeing eyes; a companionship that no human could offer her. This mirrors reality: by use of animal companionship, we can see how our predecessors survived the isolated situations of pioneering. Unspoken or not, these vital relationships will endure until departure of one member, because each involved receives such beneficial treatment even at the surficial level. She waits nearby while he gathers himself up. The superficial benefits to each member of the relationship are very much the same as those resulting from the first pair of beings we studied: protection and basic care. Paul needs this comfort in this time of extreme anxiety over losing his crops to a dust storm, and he has no one to turn to but the horse. When Paul is driven from his house to the stable to avoid arguing with his wife Ellen, he seeks refuge with Bess: "She seemed grateful for his presence, and thrust her nose deep between his arm and body. This isolation the main human character experiences is very similar to the Blindness situation, where the doctor's wife's sight isolated her more from everyone else than a spatial difference. Since Saramago's Blindness is a novel, and Ross's Lamp at Noon and Other Stories is not a novel but a collection of short stories, linked as they may be, it is impossible to contextualize each story together at once for the sake of the focus of this essay, so they will be contextualized separately. This is just another sore on the father's back from the gaudy, bragging neighbour.
Common topics in this essay:
Noon Stories,
One's Heifer,
Bess Paul's,
Noon John's,
Black Diamond,
Lamp Noon,
Rock Tommy,
,
Cornet Night,
Noon Storiesprovide,
dog tears,
doctor's wife,
lamp noon,
noon stories,
story collection,
lamp noon stories,
doctor's wife's,
isabel throws boy,
amount energy,
isabel throws,
human characters,
companionship human,
low amount energy,
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Acceptance Essays
