Blindness

“Some drivers have already got out of their cars, prepared to push the stranded vehicle to a spot where it will not hold up the traffic, they beat furiously on the closed windows, the man inside turns his head in their direction, first to one side then the other, he is clearly shouting something, to judge by the movements of bismuth he appears to be repeating some words, not one word but three, as turns out to be the case when someone finally manages to open the door, I am blind.” 

This quote is the genesis of the novel’s plot, which encompasses the outbreak of a blindness epidemic. People suddenly become blind—seeing nothing but a dazzling white light—with no prior symptoms. The man in this scene becomes known as “the first man,” or in medical parlance, patient zero. At this moment, no one has any idea that they face a catastrophic epidemic. Instead, people gather around to help a man who seems to have suddenly fallen ill. 

“What I’m trying to say is that if, in fact, you are blind, your blindness at this moment defies explanation.” 

The doctor says this to the first blind man when he comes into his surgery office looking for help with his condition. The doctor examines the first blind man and sees nothing mechanically wrong with his eyes. This is important for two reasons. First, it characterizes the disease (if, in fact, it is a disease—the text is unclear) as both insidious and unknown. This is not something for which there is a known cause, treatment, or cure, which contributes to the terror surrounding the disease. Second, this marks a critical moment where an office full of people are exposed. Many of these people—namely the old man with the eye patch, the girl with the dark glasses, and one of the office workers—will come together in the asylum as members of the first ward.