Chapter 22: He’s Blind for a Reason, You Know

1. Madeleine Fuertes September 28, 2011 Period 3 Chapter 22: He’s Blind for a Reason, You Know

2. Introducing the Character • In the setup Foster provides, the information specialist, helping to hunt down the criminal that “committed the two most hideous crimes in the human catalog of evil,” is introduced by stating that he is blind right away. • “An information specialist, someone who can shed light on the search he has undertaken, who can show our hero the truth, is summoned. When the specialist arrived, he’s blind. Can’t see a thing in the world” (Foster 201).

3. The Deeper Meaning • When an author introduces blindness, he is trying to show the different levels of seeing, further than just the physical meaning. For example, the character in the story that is blind actually sees the real story, but the character who can actually see may be blind to the real truth. • Foster explains “Clearly the author wants to emphasize other levels of sight and blindness beyond the physical. Moreover, such references are usually quite pervasive in a work where insight and blindness are at issue” (Foster 202-203).

4. Recurring Theme • The motif in stories that refer to blindness is sight. When a character or object in the story is blind, the author is constantly mentioning things that associate with sight to emphasize the blindness in that character or object. • In the story, after introducing the blind character, the narrator says “As it turns out, though, he is able to see things in the spirit and divine world, can see the truth of what’s actually happened…” (Foster 201).

5. Requirements of Having a Blind Character in the Story or Play… • Whenever the blind character is introduced, all actions or things said about this character must contain the absence of sight. Also, all other characters acknowledge and react to it in different ways. • Foster describes “Every move, every statement by or about that that character has to accommodate the lack of sight… the author has created a minor constellation of difficulties for himself by introducing a blind character into the work, so something important must be at stake…” (Foster 202).

6. When to introduce the Character • In any story or play containing a blind character, the author introduces them quite early. • Foster clarifies “If you want your audience to know something important about your character (or the work at large), introduce it early, before you need it” (Foster 205). • In rare cases when they do not, it is because the author wants to show irony, like in the literary work Waiting for Godot, written by Samuel Beckett. • After describing this play, Foster reasons “…Beckett is employing irony, and not very subtly. More commonly though, the blind character will show up early” (Foster 206).

7. “He’s Blind for a Reason, You Know” • The title of this chapter tells the reader that the character is made blind by the author for a specific reason. When the author includes a blind character in their story or play, it is usually because they want to emphasize or intend to prove a point or theme to the reader. This theme goes beyond the physical meaning of blindness, but rather the figurative. An object or person in the story may be made blind to show their knowledge not in their literal seeing abilities, but in other ways, such as intuitive abilities. • Foster states “When literal blindness, sight, darkness, and light are introduced into a story, it is nearly always the case that figurative seeing and blindness are at work” (Foster 204).

8. Applying it to Great Expectations • This chapter “He’s Blind for a Reason, You Know” can relate to the part in Chapter 53 of Great Expectations when Pip’s candle goes out. The darkness and his loss of sight for that moment actually symbolize his not knowing and blindness of what is about to happen, and foreshadows that something bad is about to happen. • Pip narrates “…and had taken up the candle in my hand, when it was extinguished by some violent shock, and the next thing I comprehended was that I had been caught In a strong running noose, thrown over my head from behind” (Dickens 350).

9. Applying it to Real Life • Stevie Wonder, known today as a legendary singer/songwriter, is blind. Although he has no sense of sight, he can sing, write music, and play piano better than the majority of other artists.

10. Works Cited • Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000. Print. • Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature Like a Professor. New York: Harper-Collins Publishers, Inc., 2003. Print.