Where Dark Meets Light

In the 20th century, José Saramago cemented his legacy as one of the most respected writers in Portuguese literature. The path to literary greatness, however, was not an easy one. Saramago was born on November 16, 1922, in Azinhaga, a small village in the province of Ribatejo, to rural laborers. Two years after his birth, his family moved to Lisbon, where he was raised amid destitution. At school, Saramago excelled, but poverty prevented him from enrolling in a grammar school. At twelve, he entered a technical school. Afterward, he worked as a mechanic, beginning a series of jobs that included metalworking. It was while working these menial jobs that Saramago developed a taste for reading, spending evenings and breaks in a public library. He later recounted that his will to learn and his curiosity were the main forces that drew him there.

Eventually, he was hired by the Lisbon publishing firm Estúdios Cor—an event that proved pivotal, opening doors for him to work as a journalist and translator. In 1947, he published his first novel, Terra do Pecado (Land of Sin). However, it remained his only published work until 1966, when he released a book of poetry, followed by more poetry collections and compilations of newspaper articles. Saramago was gradually crafting his literary path, though at first he was an obscure name. It was only in his sixties, after publishing his fourth novel, Memorial do Convento (Baltasar and Blimunda), in 1982, that he became a household name. There was no looking back for the man of humble beginnings. Global recognition followed with the novel’s English translation in 1998.

For his prolific body of work, the Portuguese writer earned several accolades, including the 1986 Prémio da Crítica da Associação Portuguesa, the 1991 Grande Prémio de Romance e Novela, and the 1993 Prémio Vida Literária. He was also awarded the Prémio Camões, the most prestigious prize for literature in the Portuguese language. Saramago reached the zenith of literary acclaim in 1998 when the Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize in Literature—one of, if not the highest literary honors in the world. This made him the only writer to have received both the Camões and Nobel Prizes, and the only Portuguese Nobel laureate in literature. In its citation, the Academy praised Saramago, “who, with parables sustained by imagination, compassion, and irony, continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusive reality.”

With the passing of time, as well as the social evolution and genetic exchange, we ended up putting our conscience in the colour of blood and in the salt of tears, and, as if that were not enough, we made our eyes into a kind of mirror turned inwards, with the result that they often show without reserve what we are verbally trying to deny. Add to this general observation, the particular circumstance that in simple spirits, the remorse caused by committing some evil act often becomes confused with ancestral fears of every kind, and the result will be that the punishment of the prevaricator ends up being, without mercy or pity, twice what he deserved.

José Saramago, Blindness

During the Nobel announcement, one of the books mentioned by the Academy was Blindness—widely regarded by critics and readers alike as one of Saramago’s greatest achievements. Originally published in Portuguese in 1995 as Ensaio sobre a cegueira (literally “Essay on Blindness”), it was translated into English in 1997. Blindness is set in an unnamed city in an unnamed country, beginning with a traffic jam caused by a man who suddenly goes blind—a milky white blindness that seizes him out of the blue. He is driven home by a seemingly good Samaritan—who later turns out not to be so good. At home, his wife finds him passed out on the couch and, upon learning of his sudden and mysterious condition, arranges an appointment with an ophthalmologist.

At the clinic, the ophthalmologist found nothing physically wrong with the blind man’s eyes, reassuring him that his eyes appear biologically healthy. The only option for them was to wait and see. They did not have to wait long and see. The good Samaritan who helped the first blind man home—after stealing his car—also goes blind. Soon, the ophthalmologist himself is struck blind after the first blind man’s appointment with him. From one unsuspecting man, the condition spreads rapidly. Several of the doctor’s patients also go blind. Concluding that the blindness is contagious, the doctor reports it to the Ministry of Health. The government hastily sets up a quarantine zone in an abandoned psychiatric hospital, where everyone infected or suspected of infection is forcibly taken and guarded by armed soldiers.

Although the government promises to care for the patients, those tasked with enforcing the quarantine follow strict and draconian orders meant to protect the rest of the population from the “white sickness.” The authorities assure the afflicted that “everything will be all right” if they cooperate—but it doesn’t take long for pandemonium to set in. As the number of infected grows, the asylum becomes overcrowded and unsanitary. Hygiene deteriorates rapidly, food becomes scarce, and conditions turn horrific. Morale plummets. Morality starts to erode. Soldiers grow increasingly callous, some even becoming infected themselves. They slowly became antipathetic and were negligent of their duties to look after the patients. Abandoned by those meant to protect them, the patients are left to fend for themselves.

Meanwhile, the conditions outside the asylum were no better. With the disease still quickly spreading, cities grind to a halt. The streets, once teeming with life, have grown silent but overflowed with refuse. The military turned hostile. The anxiety over the availability of food escalated tensions both within and outside the asylum. The soldiers also refused to allow basic medicine to be delivered. Everyone was one sickness or infection away from certain death. Meanwhile, the internees started getting broken into factions. A gun-wielding, sadomasochistic leader instigated a reign of terror. He and his clique started wreaking havoc, controlling food deliveries and distribution by demanding payment. Worse, they victimized and humiliated their fellow internees through transgressions such as assault, rape, theft, and overall terror.

We’re so remote from the world that any day now, we shall no longer know who we are, or even remember our names, and besides, what use would names be to us, no dog recognises another dog or knows the others by the names they have been given, a dog is identified by its scent and that is how it identifies others, here we are like another breed of dogs, we know each other’s bark or speech, as for the rest, features, colour of eyes or hair, they are of no importance, it is as if they did not exist

José Saramago, Blindness

As chaos consumes both the asylum and the wider city, social order also breaks down. Blindness vividly captures the pandemonium that ensued following the pandemic of blindness. Through his novel, Saramago vividly captures the chaos that ensues in similar situations. While the response in the novel is not as radical, the societal breakdown captured by Blindness can be observed from the recent COVID-19 pandemic. At the onset, the origin of the virus cannot be ascertained and before long, it had already spread across the world, prompting countries to preemptively close their borders. Some imposed lockdowns to and governments quickly put up quarantine centers to isolate the rest of the population from those who were infected. These precautions, however, were too late as millions became infected and thousands perished.

While the majority of the population was able to survive this recent health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the darker sides of humanity. Society fractured. Many conformed to health measures, but conspiracy theorists rejected them, claiming the pandemic was a tool of control. They protested against these measures, even to the point of violence. Insolence was prevalent. Xenophobia also surged: Asians were blamed for the virus and its spread, and attacks against them spread worldwide. The societal and moral breakdown exposed by the pandemic echoes the one depicted in Blindness. Although written in 1995, Saramago’s novel remains chillingly relevant for its portrayal of the human condition under crisis.

In Blindness, the epidemic serves as an allegory. Though the characters go literally blind, the true blindness stems from mass hysteria and moral decay. Most of those who have gone blind became blind after developing an intense fear of blindness. Their loss of sight symbolizes humanity’s disorientation and isolation. We have lost our own vision and sense of empathy. We have become bereft of the ability to perceive our own humanity and, in turn, the humanity of others. This, in turn, resulted in the loss of genuine connection. As our ability to be compassionate is eroded, society has become fragmented, allowing the thriving of the powerful and criminals who prey on the weak and unsuspecting. The pandemic of blindness exposes the fault lines that have always existed beneath the surface.

In exploring the complexities of humanity, Blindness underscores the fragile balance between good and evil. The novel reveals the selfishness and panic that emerge during crises but also the enduring potential for compassion. Saramago reminds readers that humanity is capable of both radical goodness and horrific cruelty. Though society hurtled into chaos caused by blindness, the characters have not lost their capacity for solidarity and moral conscience. As history has shown, we fear the things that we don’t understand. However, we eventually find a way to adapt. We have the autonomy to choose which side of our humanity will prevail. However, as the novel highlighted, these choices are also shaped by the social structures we create.

The good and the evil resulting from our words and deeds go on apportioning themselves, one assumes in a reasonably uniform and balanced way, throughout all the days to follow, including those endless days, when we shall not be here to find out, to congratulate ourselves or ask for pardon, indeed there are those who claim that this is the much-talked-of immortality, Possibly, but this man is dead and must be buried.

José Saramago, Blindness

In Saramago’s unnamed city, blindness becomes a revelation. As society crumbles around them, shifts—sensory, social, and spiritual—take place within the characters. In particular, a little group of seven people begins to work together to preserve a shred of humanity. Leading the group is the ophthalmologist’s wife, who was immune to the disease. She was a ray of hope in a story bereft of it, feigning blindness to join her husband in the asylum. Her vision provided her with both practical and moral clarity. She becomes the group’s protector and guide—a beacon of empathy in a world gone dark. While the rest of the populace lost their compassion, she remained sympathetic. Yet her compassion stems not from innate goodness but from moral responsibility born of her unique position.

Eventually, her goodness inspires others. A prostitute known as the Girl with Dark Glasses, for instance, voluntarily assumed the care of a small boy and an old man with an eyepatch. She would eventually fall in love with the old man despite their glaring age gap. The old man also helped people navigate their moral crises in the asylum. The group functioned like a family, bound by mutual protection and hope. To navigate this new world, they rationalized the mysterious illness through narratives. In times of crises, people create narratives to empower themselves through their predicament. Storytelling is a powerful tool that serves as a survival mechanism. It is a form of autonomy from oppression. In the asylum, the patients tell stories not only to pass their time but also to reclaim their identities in an environment where homogeneity has obscured their individuality.

However, narratives can also be tools of control and be rooted in oppressive ideology, influenced by those with power. Narratives can be used to manipulate public perception and serve to coerce people into accepting their circumstances. For instance, the Government issues to the general public a different version of events. A massacre of the patients by the soldiers was even justified as a retaliation against seditious movements. Saramago warns of how stories can be weaponized to sustain oppression. His antidote to this oppression is to embrace ambiguity and doubt—to remain open to multiple perspectives. The novel’s omniscient narrator mirrors this, shifting viewpoints to reveal the limits of any single truth.

Blindness is a multifaceted and multilayered novel that vividly paints the portrait of a society on the brink of collapse, with a mysterious ailment serving as the catalyst. With no cure in sight, conditions rapidly deteriorate. Morale plummets, and the boundaries between morality and amorality are eroded. The titular blindness is symbolic—representing a much deeper moral and spiritual blindness that permeates modern society. Set in a dystopian future, Blindness is Saramago’s grim and unsettling prognosis of the human condition, both individually and collectively. The absence of names—for both characters and places—underscores the universality of the story’s themes, speaking across time and culture. Blindness is a deeply philosophical and thought-provoking read—bleak, yes, but profoundly insightful and powerful.

Today is today, tomorrow will bring what tomorrow brings, today is my responsibility, not tomorrow if I should turn blind, What do you mean by responsibility, The responsibility of having my eyesight when others have lost theirs, You cannot hope to guide or provide food for all the blind people in this world, I ought to, But you cannot, I shall do whatever I can to help, Of course you will, had it nor been for you I might not be alive today, And I don’t want you to die now.

José Saramago, Blindness
Book Specs

Author: José Saramago
Translator (from Portuguese): Giovanni Pontiero
Publisher:  Mariner Books
Publishing Date: 1999 (1995)
Number of Pages: 326
Genre: Literary, Speculative, Dystopian

Synopsis

A city is hit by an epidemic of “white blindness” which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and assaulting women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers – among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears – through the barren streets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation and a vivid evocation of the horrors of the twentieth century, Blindness is a powerful portrayal of man’s worst appetites and weaknesses – and man’s ultimately exhilarating spirit.

About the Author

To learn more about the awardee of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature, José Saramago, click here.