The first people stricken with the "white plague," the plague of blindness end up in an abandoned mental institution. As the internees go in single-file to the bathrooms, the car thief feels up the young woman in the dark glasses and she kicks him, injuring him w/ her high heels (this will not go well for him). He has already stolen the first blind man's car. He's clearly not what we would call a good man, but he is not even close to the worst man that we will see in this novel. The truth is that this "disease" or whatever it is seems to bring out the best in some people, but it also brings out the worst in others. I wonder if we can reach any conclusions about this fact? Don't we like to think that people pull together in time's of struggle? Think about the volunteers at 9/11 and first responders who sacrificed their lives. Now think about people who scam victims' families or set up fake fund-raisers. All sci-fi and post-apocalyptic stories tell us something about the world we live in now. What does this novel tell us about our current society?
Other questions:
- Why do none of the characters have names? Why does this city not have a name?
- Why do all the blind people see the color white?
- How did you react to the official announcement of the govt. at the mental institution (pp. 42-44)?
- What do you think will happen next?
- What questions do you have?
From my point of view, we, people already have both good and evil deep within us. We are just good at hiding our evil side because most of us play games by rules and laws in life. We don't want to be outcasts or criminals in society. But there is some people who are opportunists like the thief who took advantage of blind man in this book. I believe it's human nature of being selfish when disasters hit.
ReplyDeleteI think the author did not give any of the characters names to not confuse the reader. There are many characters and that could lead to confusion and it would just be too many names to remember. I think the city does not have a state because this can happen anywhere, it is a post-apocalyptic story so it can be referring to something that can happen and it can happen anywhere. In my opinion this is a novel to have you make the characters out for yourself. I know it is known that people are said to come together while something is going wrong but I just think this generation is very different. Everything is a competition and people are more dreadful and evil since ever before. People do feel better when they see others downfall and find a way to level themselves up. People find satisfaction in other failures because it makes them feel better about themselves as whole. I think people will continue to go blind and just eventually everyone not survive this. Our current society is very different from even 10 years ago, people are not the same and they do not believe in uniting themselves. Although there are some people who are genuine not everyone is.
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