When those who have lost their sight are examined, however, no evidence of pathology or damage can be found. Because the government believes the disease is contagious, those people initially affected are quickly quarantined in a former mental hospital that is guarded by soldiers. There, the blind are treated like lepers and live like animals. Enigmatically, the wife of a sightless ophthalmologist has been spared from going blind. She functions as both protector and caregiver of a small group of blind people.
Life is reduced to a constant search for food.
As the situation grows even more grisly, vision is not only abruptly restored but perhaps with a clarity greater than ever before. Commentary Blindness is a powerful and disturbing allegory illustrating what might happen if society loses sight of what is truly meaningful. In this novel, humanity is in peril of vanishing both literally and figuratively. In the nightmarish portrayal of an entire country mysteriously blinded, images of rotting corpses, spreading putrescence, and repulsive acts of behavior mirror the decomposition of human nature. The novel has much to teach us about the cost of human dignity, the value of life, the intricacies of relationships, and the healing ability of love.