Allegory in Blindness by José SaramagoNobel Prize-winning novelist José Saramago's stories often take the form of allegory, and in his novel Blindness he uses this technique on a universally large scale. Most of the story takes place in a building where a group of two hundred and forty blind people are being held captive. As they are trapped and struggle to survive, this group of people collide with primal urges for food, sex, pride and power that set their narrative in motion in ways that give this unique horror story a universal relationship with the reader. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay About halfway through the novel, Saramago is blatant in his structure of the allegory of the blind men in the room. The Contamination Ward is described a bit like a cave: it's dark, the inhabitants are confined to their beds, and the presence of so many humans in one place drives each of them to despair as they search for a base base to meet his needs. However, one resident is able to use her eyesight and she eventually leads a small group of survivors out of the room. This structure is exactly the same as Plato's allegory of the cave, in which the inhabitants are kept in the dark, chained to a wall, staring at false shapes made of shadows. Similarly, Saramago's group of blind men are obsessed with the immediate fear of survival: they are blind to the possibility of escape. Saramago points out that there are exactly two hundred and forty residents in this neighborhood. He then goes on to segment this group into more precise fractions - a group of lawbreakers, a group of fearful ones, a group of fearless ones - and he also characterizes them by profession and not by name - a doctor, the doctor's wife, a whore . , a boy recently separated from his mother, and another married couple with no distinguishing features who act as a sort of control for the study of this group. The story progresses in such a way that the doctor's wife, who keeps the secret that she is able to see, is the one who frees the captives. It becomes a burden for her, but it also gives her a purpose. She is the only one who can give an advantage leading to victory over the group that breaks the law and steals the entire group's food. She is the only one who can see that there is no guard at the entrance to the room. She is also the only person who can lead the surviving group home after escaping. Upon escaping, she is the only one who can see how much the world has changed now that all its inhabitants are blind, and she undresses in the rain upon her awareness of this new world as if she were being baptized . Each of her struggles is undertaken by her own will, and yet it is the curse of her sight that leads her to see these opportunities - she is grateful to her sight only because it allows her to lead others to security. With this narrative, Saramago connects the story of Jesus Christ to that of the captive who frees himself and leads others to be freed from Plato's cave. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized paper now from our expert writers. Get a personalization essayBy segmenting the two hundred and forty blind people into obvious segments and characterizations, Saramago paves the way for an experience of universal meaning. He leads blind captives down to their lowest animal states and, from there, strengthens them with the most fundamental principles of hope and human tenacity. Along the way, he criticizes the modern mentality for