ABC story

Would anyone be able to tell me what it is called when you start each sentence with each letter in alphabetical order in a story. We read one in class I just cant remember what the style of writing is called.

An example could be like:

Apples are my favorite fruit. Bananas are not. Carrots are orange.

that was really bad but its sort of like that ^^

The blind man with the black eyepatch

I feel like the radio helped the blind man to get some knowledge of what was taking place in life via the radio and the news. Listening to what was happening in the outside world help them to to feel so oblivious as to what was taking place in society.

Radio

The radio was very valuable and the man with the black eyepatch didn’t want to give it up because it was the only way of knowing what was happening outside. It gave him hope that a cure could come about but when the person on the radio turned blind he realized that maybe there isn’t any hope and he began crying because no one was on the radio anymore when he waited tor so long.

Radio

In this section of the book I feel like slowly everyone will start to blind and sooner or later the blind will rule the world.

Describing the photo

1. It looks like everyone is following blindly behind someone but the first least dollars and everyone is still following to fall in the same hole without realizing.

2. All these men want to kill the women but everyone who has already tried has died because her power is strong i see someone who has a gun about to shoot her but i just know he’ll die before even pulling that trigger.

3. It’s clearly a corn field in the night like blue sky with birds 

4.  Maybe a dessert i don’t reallt know what that is but there’s a stone on the floor and the sky is dusty. 

5, old society in a little village the people are on horses and carriage flowing through the water it looks as if it’s only one house so there’s low civilization.

6. Jesus last super everyone is talking while he’s blessing the food 

1st image interpretation

I feel like these persons were in bondage. The blind leading the blind and is escaping it but it is still showing as though they are exhausted as they were under these circumstances for a long time.

For the 2nd image- it’s as if there was a war and some of the folks die a woman was the leader and very few came out a victor.

For the 3rd image- I’m not quite sure what to make of it. The lower area seems like grass which is mostly burnt and the upper layer seems1st image interpretation  like the sky which is mostly dark and grey.

The 4th image seems like an animal a rat perhaps all alone looking out with a wall behind him reflecting yellow as though it is pierced with sunshine and under his chin a type of wall also that seems brown, of which he rests him neck to peek out.

The 5th image seems to consist of 2 persons on a carriage led horses. They are in a pond and on the back left of them where there is dry land and there is a dog on the front left there is an old house  and 2 persons standing in front of the house along with bushes surrounding them and a pretty blue why over head. 

The 6th image would seem like a representation of Jesus and his twelve disciples eating tougher and it would seem as though they are asking him which of them will betray him.

The 7th image would seem like a angel who happens to be a male in its form 

Image Descriptions

  In the photo you can see a woman standing on piles of a bodies while men are climbing to reach her. She also seems to be somewhat naked and reaching or calling out to something. The whole scene looks like the aftermath of a war. The next image is a painting of a field that is illuminated by the night sky and there are birds or crows flying around. The next image seems bland. From what i can make i out it is a man sitting down at the base of a hill. The 5th image is a nice house in an open area with people in the little lake or pond in front doing something with some type of contraption. The 6th picture is the last supper with Jesus and friends arguing over what seems to be like the bill for the food they ate. The next image makes me think of a mermaid caught in the middle of a dispute on land and sea.

Class images-Nicko

The first photo shown depicted what looked like men shoving other people into a pit, but using long sticks to do so, it looks like they dont want to touch them or want to be contaminated. The second picture shown is titled "Liberty Leading the People"-french revolution. The 3rd image is from Vincent Vangogh- the image is a Wheatfield with 3 diverging roads with crows flying all around. The 4th image seems to be a hill with a rock or a person sitting at the bottom. It's hard to make out. The 5th image is a nice house surounded by open land a small pond separating the two. A man appears to be trudging thru the pond with a wagon. The 6th image is Jesus sitting at the last supper, supplying his homies with good eats and drinks. My man Judas got no bev so hes tight. The 7th image is the birth of Venus, I believe. A goddess, shown to be appreciated by both heavin and the earth.

Image interpretations

In the first image, I see four blind men on the left holding a stick while following someone who is leading them but I’m guessing he’s not blind. I see someone on the ground but I’m not sure if he’s dead. In the second image I see a lady holding a flag up which seems like she’s claiming victory after what looks like she’s been struggling for because the top half of her dress is ripped. A man is staring at her chest which looks like he’s hypnotized by it. There’s a couple of head guys one without pants which I think would be the “bad guys”. The third image looks confusing but I see a sky and two moons and several birds flying towards it. I see green and red lines which could mean that it’s a path leading to somewhere. The fourth image looks confusing as well but I see the head of a dog and the brown part could be the ground and the dog is looking up. It definitely gives me sad vibes. I see a shadowy figure maybe that could be the owner of the dog and the dog sees him and misses him. In the fifth image I see lots of greenery and what looks like a lake and a dog. There is a wagon thing with two people on it and horses pushing it. In the sixth image I see a man in the middle which shows he’s important and people on the right and left eating and enjoying themselves. Looks like a happy gathering. In the seventh image I see a naked lady and someone getting a big scarf to wrap her in it. And I see a man and it looks like he’s spitting water at her maybe bathing her. He has wings and is holding another lady. There’s flowers around her which symbolize purity.

paintings + blindness

I think that the painting with the woman leading the people is closely related to the book because it shows the woman guiding the people behind her. In blindness, the doctors wife can be closely compared to this woman because she is also leading the blind people in the ward.

The painting of the naked woman with the people surrounding her relates to blindness because in the painting it almost looks like that they're worshiping this woman. The blind people in the book, in a way, worship the doctors wife because although they may not know that she can see, she seems to be the one getting them from point A to B

Dog

I don't remember animals being mentioned much in the novel but this dog could represent the blind internees. The dog is submerged and barely staying afloat. Just like the blind internees who struggle for survival but manage to get by. The dog could represent the doctor's wife as well. The doctor's wife is keeping her head up like the dog amongst blind thieves, disease, unsanitary conditions.

Painting

This painting of the French woman leading men in battle mirrors the doctor's wife in the story. The doctor's wife manages to rally everyone in order to fight against the thieves and she takes charge, even going as far as to kill the leader of the thieves because she had to be the one to step up. The woman in this painting is strong and the men look on at her with astonishment and a bit of surprise. The doctor's wife is strong just like this woman.

Picture Analysis

I see four men with a stick, following as they lead and I see a dead person on the floor. I think this relates to blindness, as all the people go blind and everyone becomes corrupt. I think this image signalizes the downfall and demise of the plague that’s spread among everyone. In the second picture, I feel like it represents Triumph and victory above all below, since the lady is holding up a stick which has a flag on it. She appears to be the leader of the whole group. The third picture shows a blurry road in which what appears to be batts all following along the same path, all seeking the same goal which is refugee to make it out somehow. The fourth picture shows a loner sitting on the floor with nothing left around him as he just wanders around thinking to himself, this emphasizes the ending of something. The fifth picture shows a lake around a village in which people are inside a nice house enjoying themselves. The sixth picture shows a man in a table with a bunch of people, in which they appear to be having a group discussion about something. It appears to be a happy crowd formed together.

Ekphrasis

 Ekphrasis is when you write in response to art. Saramago uses real-world art in his novel in several places.

On p. 123, Saramago writes of "...the blind people in the painting, walking together, falling together and dying together." This is the painting that Saramago is referring to, by Bruegel from the 16th Century:

 

And on p. 233, after the doctor's wife and the others are free from the mental institution and she leads her band of survivors, the narrators says, "...this was not liberty leading the people, the bags fortunately full, are too heavy for her to carry them aloft like a flag." This is a reference to French 19th century painter Eugene Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, commemorating the French Revolution of 1830:

On pp. 128-129, the "unknown voice" in the ward tells of the painting that he was looking at when he went blind. This painting is actually several very famous paintings. He describes "a picture of a cornfield w/ crows and cypress trees and a sun that gave the impression of having been made up of the fragments of other suns." This is probably a reference to Wheat Field with Crows by the Dutch painting Vincent Van Gogh:

Then he describes "...a drowning dog...already half-submerged, poor creature..." This is probably Spanish painter Francisco Goya's The Dog:

And then "there was a cart laden with hay, drawn by horses and crossing a stream," with "a house on the left." This is probably Hay Wain by British painting John Constable:

The "thirteen men" eating is probably Italian painter Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper:

And finally, a naked woman with fair hair, inside a conch that was floating on the sea, and masses of flowers around her" is obviously Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus:

The unknown voice describes all these paintings as being a part of the same painting. The paintings are painted by different painters, exist in different museums in different countries. What do you make about this experience in the context of the novel?

Post apocalyptic movie

This is one of my favorite post apocalyptic movies San Andreas (2015). What I also see in almost every post apocalyptic story is the characters fighting for survival.
That makes it interesting For example in this movie the characters had to fight for survival no matter what it takes likewise in  Blindness the doctors wife and the others were together fighting through that disease. She plays a major role of guiding the group of bind people to survive the disease  

https://youtu.be/PnpouwLCZnE

Blindness

I'm glad the doctor's wife finally took a stand against the thieves. I've been waiting for this to happen since she found the scissors. The fact it took her that long to do it was annoying. The situation was worsening by the day and people were starving. I get that a person doesn't shed their morals that easily but this was survival. She needed to do this sooner. I thought it was interesting that there's a contrast between the doctor and his wife. Obviously one can see and the other can but it runs deeper than that. Throughout the book, the doctor is seen as a voice of reason. People look to him for authority. His wife is in the background and no one really regards her with the same type of feelings they have for the doctor. People expect the doctor to rise up to the occasion but it's his wife that does it. She cares for her little group. She is the one who takes charge and kills the leader of the thieves and she does it with easily. She even remarks that she would kill again if it were necessary. It's nice to see how strong the wife is compared to the doctor.

Blindness

I don't remember whether or not we were supposed to do these posts during break but I'll do it anyways. One thing that I found surprising was how the thieves still asked for valuables even though they were blind and stuck in an asylum.What would they do with the goods? Society as they knew it was breaking down, by the time they got out these goods might not have even been worth anything. The one thing that bothered me was how the thieves had a gun. How did they sneak a gun in? I'm guessing the military saw that they had a gun and figured it would only help them since it could be used to take out some of the infected. Maybe I missed a part where they explained how the leader of the thieves got a gun. Maybe the military gave them a gun so they could start killing off the infected. It's kind of suspicious that the only ward with an actual blind man who knows how to live with being blind, managed to get possession of a gun.

Blindness

From reading the orders sent from the government pp 42-44 it almost sounds like the government have full control over the blind people and yet they are not interested in bringing in other professionals to look into the situation.They just have full control and don't have the best interest to offer help.It also sounds like these people are 
sentence to a punishment of some sort rather than treatment. Also what I have noticed so far from reading is that the author focuses on a group of people going bind like a micro study because we know what happens to just these people in the facility and not people in the outside world like is this disease spreading else where or not.He just focuses on few characters as of this point. Also he shows how each blind character react to this crisis.I am curious to read more in order to find out if there will be a cure and how will this end.

Blindness and bird box

This book is low key like bird box. The only difference is the people in the book was just getting blind randomly and just have to live with not seeing. In bird box the people was safe as long as they kept their blindfolds on. If they took it off they were on the urge of dying.

blindness and birdbox

I see some very close similarities between the book blindness and the movie Birdbox. In the movie birdbox for them to survive, they can't look at the outside world or obstruct their view just enough so they can barely see anything. But at the end of the movie, they found a refugee camp that was a school for the blind. They were the ones to mainly survive because of their disability. In the book, Blindness people are just randomly losing their eyesight, and no one knows why. But the Doctors wife seems to be the only one immune to what appears to be an airborne disease.

Blindness opinion

Wow just imagine that your just living your daily life on just a regular day,and all of a sudden for some weird and unexpectedly you go completely blind. I would imagine that if this happen in real life I would think the doctors and nurses would go blind too. Unless they would have a protected power that keeps them safe from getting blind too. But realistically your not going to get blind from catching it from someone. Its not a contagious disease but other wise I like the creativity in this book. Its different from anything I read. I'm not really into syfy type stuff but this book is interesting.

Blindless and Birdbox

both have major similarities when it comes to loss of sight or the inability to use their sight. They are also similar in the way of everyone having to adapt to their surroundings and now their circumstances. The major difference between the two is in Birdbox aliens have taken over and in Blindless people randomly start to lose their eyesight.

Blindness pg 66-69

In this part the facility is getting more crowded the characters are getting worried about the food supplies and how unhygienic their surrounding is getting. It also shows how the eye specialist is just thrown away in this facility and not being looked after although he is an educated professional. These people are locked up and did not get the help promised by the government. It's as if they were already dead to society.

Post-Apocalyptic Story

I don’t know any post-apocalyptic stories but I guess in a sense the blind people in the ward are being treated similarly to as zombies. They’re being isolated, threatened, and are considered hazardous. Also it’s every man for themselves as people have to survive on their own. People in zombie movies probably want to trap the zombies, and the people in the ward are basically trapped.

Blindness vs. Bird Box

The differences that blindness and bird box have is that something in the air is making people go crazy and kill themselves once they look at it, so they have to cover there eyes making them not able to see while certain people are just getting blind with no explanation. Also the government wasn’t able to catch it on a certain amount of people, everyone was getting affected if they looked at what was outside. Everyone was free and not controlled by the government. Another difference is that in blindness, nobody knows why they are getting blind. In Bird Box, we know that there’s something in the air that makes you go crazy once you look at it. In these two cases, people were choosing to be blind while others were just going blind.

Bird box as opposed to blindness

as for birdbox the characters had to keep their eyes covered so as to avoid them from Leung affected by something that is in the atmosphere that would affect them. If they were to see it they would eventually die. If they were to look in the eyes of those who have seen the particular thing that was contributing to them affecting their lives, they would kill themselves. They would die. For blindness it is contagious one person had it and the next person they come in contact with eventually catches it. These people wind up seeing this whiteness and eventually they are forced to be in a space with everyone else who has it. The difference between both is that with blindness the persons only dire if they are shot but not because they are forced to kill themselves without even knowing why. If they were to do this in blindness then it would be a choice but not something that they do not have control over.

Blindness and Birdbox

      Blindness is like birdbox post-apocalyptic wise because both have a main premice of an illness or infection of the eye that causes issues. The difference is that in birdbox when people open their eyes outside or look outside they become overwhelmed with an urge to kill themselves unlike blindness where they just go blind in general and live with the confines of not seeing.

Bird Box

The difference would be that the blind in Birdbox are at an advantage and are voluntarily covering their eyes to avoid the creatures that induce suicide. The similarity would be that they are both in a time of something that is spreading across the world. The people in birdbox that want you to look at the creatures would be a difference and also there isn’t government regulations, everyone is free to do their own thing. In Blndess there is govt regulation and isolation from the general population but it’s still spreading. Another similarity is that there are groups which do their own regulations and planning.

Blindness-Birdbox

The story Blindness and the movie Birdbox share similarities straight from the jump that is almost impossible to miss. Both are set in post apocalyptic settings that have a lone woman being a protagonist almost- but definitely different from all the other individuals. In Blindness, the woman (doctors wife) is not blind, and that makes her special due to the fact shes able to do what the others are not able to. In Birdbox, the main character is different due to her strong will and love for the children she's responsible of. While the 2 are similar, there are also differences. In the book, being blind is bad. Its almost like an infection that spreads and nobody wants to be blind. In the movie, in order to survive you must be blind or risk death.

blindness/dawn of the dead

 In the beginning of Dawn of the Dead, society is starting to break down. The people are trying to save their zombie relatives and hide them away while the government tries to contain the plague by any means necessary. While it seems like society is holding strong against the plague, eventually government contact ends leaving the protagonists on their own. Blindness is similar because the government in this story shares the same sentiment as the government in Dawn of the Dead. Both governments want to contain the plague as much as they can. In Dawn of the Dead and Blindness, they don't know how the plague started. The doctor's wife going along with her husband is similar to the way families kept their undead relatives in basements because they wanted to help them. Even the zombies kept in the basements mirror the blind because the zombies were kept isolated and their only interaction with people was when they were fed. The infected in Blindness only interacted with the soldiers when they wanted food or a spade to bury their dead.

Blindness / Birdbox

A way that this movie is similar to Blindness is that both symbolizes Hope. In Birdbox the characters made a choice to cover their eyes and Blindness they didn’t have a choice they just went blind.

birdbox-blindness

Birdbox and Blindess are very similar but also very different. In both, the characters cant see and sort of have to live like every man for themselves. The difference though, it that in Birdbox, they are covering their eyes so that they dont look at whatever it is that makes people kill themselves. In Blindness, people just went blind for no reason.

A quiet place

A quiet place is related to blindness because in the movie everyone has to be quiet if they were to speak this big monsters would come to hunt and kill them and they all work together to survive. Relating to blindness they don’t have to be quiet but they have to be cautious of what they say and how the move for example they can’t move how they want if they were to try and leave they will die. A little difference i see yes they will all work together to survive they all have no choice it’s there life now but a counter claim would be everyone turning against each other because of the simple fact there trapped.

Blindness- chapter summary

As the story goes on, we learn that the soilders are just as scared as the civilians, even going as far as to shoot anyone that comes close. The guy that got stabbed in his knee was the first one killed (the car thief) when he crawls out to the guards and ask for medication for his wound. In a panic he is shot in the head.

Blindness

In this part of the story, new arrivals are coming. It’s getting more crowded and people are getting irritated. The new arrivals are excepting doctors, and a possible cure but are upset to see that there’s nothing being done at the facility. How is the place going to survive with so many people involved, lack of food, lack of hygiene products, etc is the concern. The place is going on to how animals are treated.

Nickolai, Theodor , Nicole H. Group #3

Ways society has broken down
-everyone because independent
-everyone was worried about their own issues rather than focusing on getting through it together

Ways it will break down even more
-they will kill eachother
-more people will get infected

Purpose of the doctors wife
-she is almost like their savior

Similar to
-birdbox
-a quiet place

How is it different?
-there isn't a specific reason why everyone is going blind

Blindness pg 66-69

3 more blind persons arrived and settled in. For the most people were just settling in and some were discomforted and expressed that through crying. Some voiced how they were going to die being locked up where they were. The reason for this was because they were promised some form of assistance. Thoughts were voiced inwardly  as to how they would cope under the given circumstances. They were blind except for the doctor’s wife and if the doctor was to be shaved by his wife then suspicion would be raised that she could actually see.

Blindness

      In this scene of the story the doctor and his wife arrive at the quarantine area and while entering the car thief who also went blind is with them. As they are escorted in he gropes the prostitute and she kicks him in the leg with her heels badly injuring him. The doctor and his wife patch him up best they can. The doctors wife later wonders why she still hasn’t gone blind. She wakes up before everyone else and seems to analyzing the current conditions of the hospital their in slowly realizing what things would be like by the way the guards act towards them and overall how they are assessing the situation.

Blindness

Everyone is getting blind and the ward is trying to shove everybody into one room and it seems to me it’s getting over stuffed and sooner or later the protest will turn into rioting because that’s not a good feeling of living. Bad enough they’re  locked away from the rest of the world but now since majority is getting blind also, they have to share a tiny room with them.how is the wife not blind yet

blindness

i think this section of the book is trying to show the reader how these people with this mysterious blindness are being treated. Almost like animals with rabies. Nobody wanted to go near them or help them because they fear the blindness aswell

Blindness

This segment in the novel serves to show how much worse the epidemic is getting inside the mental asylum and outside. The fact that there were so many blind people flooding into the wards shows how much more the plague has spread. The government must not be doing that great of a job keeping the blindness contained. This segment also shows the tense and hostile environment that is starting to form in the asylum. A group of people can be easily managed and usually are charitable to one another. With the sudden increase in blind people, now there will be conflict. People will fight over food and turn the place into a sewer. The chaotic situation on the inside almost mirrors the one on the outside. Both the outside world and the asylum are barely keeping themselves together and the government is struggling to keep order in both of these places.

Blindness

People are freaking out and having a hard time because they can’t see and are upset because they were promised help, but there was only the blind doctor. He doesn’t have the equipment necessary and he can’t see so his options are very limited. Also, because they can’t see they are just staying in their ward because they’re worried they will get lost. It also mentioned that because they are blind, they can’t shower, shave, or use the bathrooms by themselves and that there was no one to help them.

blindness

I think that this part of the book is giving the reader a look at how blind people are being badly treated. I think that the blind are being treated like this because no one knows what's happening and it if it might be contagious. But it's still no excuse to treat these people like animals.

Blindness

I think this part of the novel supports that this blindness is contagious because the people that had close contact with the girl with the dark glasses. The eye doctor is feeling helpless even though his wife could help him out but he’s fearful of suspicion. I’m still wondering how his wife can still see when she’s been around them for so long? They are going to be in isolation for a long time it seems and order will be lost. The doctor can already tell the asylum isn’t going to have enough space.

Blindness

Something I’ve noticed yesterday and today while reading this scene was that the internees are being treated like prisoners. They don’t get their good on time and the soldiers don’t care about them nor their health.

Blindness

It’s really annoying that the author writes in so long paragraphs. However it seems like the blind people are being treated like prisoners and have to ask for food when the soldiers were supposed to have all that ready. They shot and killed nine internees without hesitation. I hope that the soldiers get infected as well because they deserve it.

Blindness and the Apocalypse

As you read Blindness, I'd like you to make connections to other post-apocalyptic films, TV shows, novels, comic books, myths, video games etc. What is your favorite posts-apocalyptic story? Or, if you've never seen one or never seen one you liked, why not? Why do you thinks these stories have been with us for thousands of years? What do they speak to? (Feel free to use the link/image/video buttons above to link to internet images and/or video.)

Here's a clip from one of my favorite post-apocalyptic films, George Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978):

As you continue to read the novel, what do you imagine will happen? What have you been surprised by? What questions do you have?

Blindness

From reading so far the car thief was the second person that goes bind and had contact with the first bind man at first I thought that it was karma that caused them to go bind( the thief and girl with the dark glasses) then I realized after the class discussion that the little boy also goes bind and then I probably got a little confused but I am curious as to why the author choose these characters to go bind and it’s probably not karma. I am interested in what’s going to happen next in the facility and how the blindness is going to spread and how would the doctor’s wife acting blind pays out. 

End of the World

I predict that the end of the world will be horrifying. I feel like it will be just like the Hollywood movies, not ending in a snap of your fingers, but taking days. I feel as if people will suffer and it will be a very sad event happening. I don't see the world ending peacefully mainly because the way movies portray it. The way the movies go about it, makes it seem like all of those events can truly come true.

End of the World

    My idea of the end of the world would be earth slowly over time losing more and more of its natural resources. Just the generic sources we use even for self sustenance will grow scarce. Food, water, and even shelters will be relied on even more until they eventually start to decay because the earth will not be able to sustain itself. Eventually it will fall apart more and more until theres nothing left or anything to allow for our survival.

End of the world Story-Nicko

Waking up from cryostasis, I was shocked for two reasons- how did i end up here qnd where is everyone? I awoke, liquid filling up my pod from the thawing ice all around me and the sound of an alarm screaming louder than anything ive ever heard before. I push open the latch to see other pods, empty as well, and no trace of anybody being here in years. As I use all my strength to crawl out the pod, I find it incredibly hard to stand, but I know I have to escape. I know I need to find a way out and see of anyone is out there. I drag my body across this huge office until I someone have the strength to stumble to a locker without a padlock to search what's inside. To my pleasure, I find an old janitor jumpsuit, dusty and filled with spiderwebs but anything I can use to cover me would be beneficial. I need to find a way out. Stumbling up the stairs I get eventually find myself at a huge safe vault door, looking as if i was in a movie and opening this door would provide me all the money in a bank, I attempt to open the door. The door is heavy, definitely sealed tight to keep people from not coming inside... or to keep what's inside from coming out. After hours of turning and pushing, the constant turning allowed the door to finally open. I take a step outside and am blinded by the sun for a few minutes. When I open my eyes i could barely breathe... but what's more than that is that I can barely believe what i can see... nothing. I see nothing. Miles and miles of sand and dust mixed together as if I was placed into a desert. I begin walking towards one direction in hope of finding something. I'll have to find something eventually... right?

End of the world

I think the people that will witness the end of the world will be horrified. It will be the worst thing that has happened in their life time. Everyone will feel helpless and some won’t even know who to call out for help. I don’t think there will be any survivors and the world itself will not  be there anymore hence “end of the world” The idea of the world ending is filled with many theories but no one has the ultimate answer or knowledge of how it will be carried out and when it will happen. It isn’t exciting for me but it’s my worst fear to witness such a scene. People might question seconds before dying: “so what’s next? What will become of me after this? What will happen to my conscious?” How does not existing feel like? We can’t even ask a dead person. Sad.

End of the world

I think when the world ends it’s going to be a least one person that survives. I used to think that everyone would die and and everything would be gone or destroyed. Now I kinda think there going to be at least one person that will make it and evolution will start over.

End of the world

When it’s time for the world to end I feel like we won’t even know until it’s too late just because of the simple fact we always wait till last mintute to do something. Just like death, when people die others say “ I should’ve told you I loved you, I should’ve did more for you, etc.” when we have the time to do it we never think twice to. Not like karma but that’s the way life works, the end of the world is basically death but why wait to know when the end is the world is just so you can be great. That’s why I feel we will never even know when it will end so that we can do everything till our full extent with no deadlines. Maybe it won’t even end, maybe it’ll just be another afterlife.

The end of the world

If the world were to end, I think it should end in the absolute worst way possible. Humanity has thrived for centuries so it might as well go out with a bang. The apocalypse should come in the form of a Romero style zombie apocalypse. Slow and semi intelligent zombies who are deadly in numbers. In Romero's living dead trilogy(Night of the living dead, Dawn of the dead and day of the dead), zombies outnumber humans 500000 to 1 if I remember correctly. For comparison, in The Walking Dead, I think the number of zombies to humans is only 5000 to 1. The ideal end of the world scenario is a situation where the odds are so severely stacked against humanity to the point where humanity is wiped out. What better way to do that than with a George A. Romero style apocalypse where guns never run out of ammunition and humans spend more time fighting each other than the dead.

End Of The World

When it comes to something so depressing, though you know it’s going to happen eventually, you will never really know what’s going to bring about this action. Our own people are messing up our planet so therefore we might kill off our own species.

End of the world

When I hear “the end of the world”, I picture the earth disappearing along with everyone and everything in it. I believe in an afterlife and that people will go there when they die.

End Of The World

When it’s time for the world to end, I feel like us humans depend so much on timing and getting things done after time, that we will have absolutely no time to react. I feel like it will happen so unexpectedly that the whole world will become corrupt and absolute chaos and leave us with little to no time to react at all. In stories, I feel like the end of the word is often over dramatized just how they say, “As they lived happily ever after”, but in real life my claim is that that is not the case at all. I feel like the world is gonna end due to a Nuclear war, an asteroid, or a black hole. Also, another possibility is our earth consuming tons of electricity, turning our earth into a fire ball, completely dusting and wasting everything that ever lived, such as us humans, nature, wild life, buildings, property, and the world’s entirety.

Blindness

The car thief has several mixed emotions currently running through his head as he’s driving. He acknowledges helping the blind man get to his house safely, but starts to feel guilt and remorse for what he’s truly done, by stealing his car. The car thief is the second person to go blind in the book so far, and this emphasizes the spread of blindness, and the effect it’s having on the people starting to cause chaos. While he’s driving, he debates whether or not he should speed up and drive fast, disobeying the traffic laws, due to him having worries of the police capturing him and arresting him. This worry and fear that the robber deals with while driving and thinking about what harm he’s truly done, builds tension and nervousness and helps us as the reader to get in his shoes and see things from his perspective.

Blindness

After stealing the 1st blind man car, he started feeling guilty and mixed feelings about stealing the car. Then while driving, he got blind. In some sort of way, as a punishment for stealing the car was the become blind as well. Going on forward with the story, he’s the second person who got blind so it could mean that this blindness is going to spread making it a problem in this community.

Blindness

The car thief has several mixed emotions currently running through his head as he’s driving. He acknowledges helping the blind man get to his house safely, but starts to feel guilt and remorse for what he’s truly done, by stealing his car. The car thief is the second person to go blind in the book so far, and this emphasizes the spread of blindness, and the effect it’s having on the people starting to cause chaos. While he’s driving, he debates whether or not he should speed up and drive fast, disobeying the traffic laws, due to him having worries of the police capturing him and arresting him. This worry and fear that the robber deals with while driving and thinking about what harm he’s truly done, builds tension and nervousness and helps us as the reader to get in his shoes and see things from his perspective.

Response to blindness

I personally feel like this man is reaping what he had sown. It would generally be considered something that he deserved simply because of the fact that he stole the car. It’s as if he didn’t demonstrate an act of kindness for merely being kind because he had an ulterior motive that was not necessarily exhibited. His deceptive skills were quite alive I’d say...

Blindness

        In this scene from Blindness we see that the man offering to take the first blind man home after losing vision becomes very nervous after planning on stealing the car. He’s often adhering to street signs, traffic, and lights even more than he would usually do to avoid being pulled over or getting into any accidents. His nervousness builds a mood and allows the reader to imagine what he’s feeling through scene. Claiming that it only takes one wrong move for the police to pull them over and it would be right back to prison.

Blindness

The car thief is going through lots of emotions in this part. He's afraid of being caught by police. Something that is interesting is the part of the chapter where the concept of karma. The thief is worried about the consequences he'll face whether it be from police or facing the same fate as the blind man. This segment in the book establishes that the blindness is contagious.

Blindness

I believe in this section of the book the author is showing us how taking advantage of someone’s weakness can eventually come back around and get you. Aka "Karma."

Blindness

A second person has now gone blind and in a sense it is foreshadowing that many more people are going to start to lose their vision. I think it is also foreshadowing that people are going to take advantage of other people being blind and try to take things from them.

Blindness

Starting from page sixteen I think what happened to the thief was karma. In my opinion he got what he deserved. He shouldn’t have stole the car, he should have carried out his good intentions all the way to the end. What use of helping the man when he took the opportunity of stealing his car when the first blind man was in a vulnerable state.  I think maybe this book will aim on the good and the bad but maybe emphasize how even when a bad person turns blind he is still the same person nothing changes about him. He will blame others.

Blindness

When i first read that the theif went blind I thought it was good karma because how dare you! That was the guilt of his wrongdoing putting shame on him. I feel like i could picture his panicking from the text. When I  his scene of him going blind it seemed to me that since he came in contact with the old blind guy he helped home, he gained blindness but the other part of me was saying like blindness cannot be contagious so i was confused but then i read on in the chapter...

blindness

I think that what is happening in these few pages is that anyone who had contact with the first blind man will eventually go blind as well. I also looked it in a way of like 'what goes around comes around' because right after he steals the car he goes blind.

Blindness- class read

In class, we just read pages 16-19 and have learned about the inner monologue one of the character has to himself. We learn that he has just been to jail and is afraid to go back, after just stealing a car from a blind man that he's recently helped- he is pressured and is filled with a strange worying feeling. He parks the car and decides to clear his head and later finds himself going blind, just like the man he helped.

Starting Blindness

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? 

Blindness

Gotta Say from the beginning nothing was really making sense until like 7-10 pages in then everything started to fall into place. It’s crazy how this disease can be passed on.

Blindness

I've taken some time to start reading the new book that we are supposed to read for the next class. The name of the book is Blindness by Jose Saramago, before getting into it we were told that it would be the same kind of outlook as the Netflix movie BirdBox. The book starts off with a man randomly going blind during rush hour. Another man helps the blinded man and drives him home and then starts to steal to blind's man car. Then the man who stole the car also went blind as well. Then afterward tons of people started to go blind as well. From what I've read so far it was hard to distinguish the meaning of it yet.

Blue Angel (Final Chapters)

This novel can definitely be related to the movie we watched in class. Some of the scenes in the book represents Rath's downfall and also Professor Swenson's downfall. The moment when Professor Swenson's rents the movie Blue Angel from Video Village and watches the film and relates it to his current situation with Angela. The author's use of irony is key in this scene is funny because he looks down on Professor Rath for his mistakes and states how the mistakes he made are different than the ones from Rath. In the end, both teachers regretted their harmful decisions and learned their mistakes.

Blindness

This book was sort of challengijg the first ten pages because I'm not use to the author writing the dialogue in such a way that it isn't directly noticable that there is dialogue. I was sort of confused on why the wife went to the asylum with her husband, and no one picked up on that. She did a bunch of things that to a blind person might seem like something you would need you eyes for, for example the bandaging of the leg of the thief. I also found it interesting that there are no names being mentioned. It's sort of vague who the characters names are, and overall there is no mention of the town, the country, nothing. But perhaps because the people are blind tye author kinda wants us to be blind in reading this book to certain aspects of the book... Just something to think about.

Blue angel

After finishing the last of the book I was kinda sad that it didn't tell us what will wind up happening to the Prof. I also found it weird that he saw a doe. Im not sure if that was supposed to symbolize something specific, but just curious as to why a doe in particular... But overall I found the book quite interesting to read...

Blindness

The premise of the book is interesting. I remember seeing a part of the movie when I was a kid but I didn't really understand what was going on. Now I'm reading the actual book and the one thing that threw me off was the dialogue and characters. The dialogue doesn't have any quotation marks and it's not separated from the rest of the text. It's like a stream of consciousness and it was hard at first to understand which character was saying what. I grew to appreciate it though because the cluttered and chaotic writing style sort of mirrors what's going on in the book. People are confused. There's a plague of blindness going around and it's causing chaos and discord among the population. The writing style reflects that. It's jumbled and all over the place.The decision not to give the characters any names though seems weird to me. On the blurb in the back it says Blindness is a "powerful portrayal of man's worst appetites". It's kind of hard to see that when I can't really sympathize with these characters.I understand that the book does show the worst of humanity but for now the character interactions to me don't seem very genuine. Giving a character something as simple as a name can humanize them. We can visualize them and maybe even relate with them. It's hard to relate to characters who are only referred to as the doctor or the thief. Maybe the book will prove me wrong though. I'm sure it gets better as it goes along and it'll get to a point where I won't even care about characters not having any names.

Blindness

I really like how the beginning of the book starts with the conflict right away and that catches my attention. I already have a feeling why the car isn’t moving judging from the name of the book and it turns out he is the first guy who turns blind. It’s interesting how he only sees white rather than black like you would think a blind person only sees black. I think the book having long sentences and no names of people shows it’s uniqueness and how different it’s style is from the other books I’ve read. I start feeling sympathy for the man right away because he just got blind out of no where and is separated yet still in the world of colors.

Blue angel-final aspect

I don’t like the way the book ended. It left the reader (me) in the position where you’re not quite sure what is going to happen for Angela and nothing was mentioned about Sherrie. We’re not sure if Swenson and her will eventually reconcile or whether her their daughter will come to that place where she will consider it as water under the bridge. I think things look awfully dim for Swenson but there is hope for him to find himself in some way or another again. I noticed how much Angela lied so much in the courtroom and how Swenson hardly got to speak his mind on his side of of the story. He just wasn’t fighting anymore. He was just letting things be other than in his thoughts. A fictional book it was but it’s not something that is impossible to be a real life story, maybe not exactly the same as the book, word for word but situations with teacher student has occurred that I’ve heard of before and it always ends up where the teacher loses his job.

Blue angel- final chapter opinion

I think it was really depressing how Sweson life turned out. However I do kinda of think he put that on himself because he had everything anyone could have wanted. He had a understanding wife and he had a good job where he was respected. Everyone makes mistakes but he took his to a whole another level with ruining his career and his reputation.

group critique

Today I tried a little something different than what I usually write and i honestly didn't like it. I'm used to strictly writing about my dreams, others dreams, or research about dreams. Today i had my group read something that i had started in class on Tuesday and just decided to finish last night. I don't know if i will include it in my collection or not. I'll probably finish it first and then decide.

Blue angel -one of the last scenes

This scene is very important because Sweson is realizing that his life is falling apart. His wife is leaving him, his daughter is not going to come home for Christmas and now all he has to do with himself is to drink his emotions away. He doesn't think he has something going for him and he doesn't even care about his life anymore. Him seeing the blue angel movie didn't make it any better because he kinda sees himself in it because he kinda living through it and it relates to him a lot.

Blindness- the first few pages
This will be a great book, and I can tell just from the first 10 pages. That is all I have read so far and it is already grabbing my attention. It makes you wonder why did he go blind all of a sudden? What causes this event to happen? The author gives a lot of insight and detail throughout the story and he makes you feel as if you are in the characters shoes.

Blue Angel - one of the last scenes.
In this scene of the book, it seems like Swenson's life is slowly but surely falling apart. His wife has decided to leave him and his daughter no longer wants to speak to him. Without his wife, he has to actually learn how to do things on his own and find activities to take up his time. He does not know how to cook at all so he resolves to microwave dinners but get tired of them. Drinking makes everything feel better to him, so he drinks every single day.He sees the movie blue angel and this peaks his interest but he's not quite ready to take it on.

Blue Angel

         I think this scene in Blue Angel is important because it shows Sherrie leaving and the transistion Swenson begins to to go through without having her around. He can barely cooking anything without it going wrong and eventuallY starts eating bad until he just doesn’t eat from time to time. Eventually he just stops worrying about everyone and everything else because he is so consumed by his readings and comparing them to his life  like the ending of “The Lady with the Pet Dog” where he mention the relationship he wants is like Gurov’s and Anna, deceiving each other.

Blue angel- Swenson's time alone

During class we reached the point of Swenson leaving his home and old literature to go out into town and visits a video store. Swenson in his loneliness look for ways to use up his time and feels as if this would be a great way to do so. As he enters the store he moves past the many sections the store has to offer and into the classics section. He there finds blue angel and debates taking it out, but puts it down for the meanwhile. It's a powerful scene, knowing what we know now after watching the original "Blue Angel movie in class". Drastic in its comparisons, the movie and Swensons life shares striking similarities...

Blue angel

This section we just read is important because it shows Swenson preparing himself for the future. Swenson was walking on eggshells before he met Angela. He had to worry about not getting too close to students, not getting too close to Magda and his daughter who never called him. As his life crumbles down, we see that Swenson doesn't care that much anymore. He's fine with Ruby spending the holidays with her mom. Swenson doesn't listen for Sherrie's car and doesn't wait for a call from Magda. He's disconnecting from them and maybe that's how he'll live his life after the hearing.

Sherrie’s now aware

Swenson has to deal with the fact that his wife decided to leave the house. He tries to some up ways in which he’ll spend his days knowing that he’s not going to work neither is Sherrie coming home as per usual. In short order, after his wife left his daughter called. She helped him to understand that she wasn’t going to visit for Christmas and briefly she expressed how she think what he did to her mom. It seemed evident that Swenson wasn’t quite used to cooking for himself as he attempted but failed at doing it the way his wife did. Conclusively it seemed he was having a hard time not living like he normally used to before this encounter took place.

I think this scene is important because Swenson is realizing what he doesn’t have anymore and how is life is slowly degrading. His daughter isn’t staying at the house with him for Christmas, his wife left to stay at a large farmhouse and his at home drinking his sorrows away. But at the same time, he’s thinking about how Angela is spending her time in New Jersey and what she’s up too. He’s wondering if she’s thinking about him or thinking about what to testify. During his time off, he returns Angela book of poems back to the library as he doesn’t want it anymore. He’s given up on himself and doesn’t really care anymore.

Blue Angel

This part is important because Swenson is acting like if he didn’t really care about his wife and daughter leaving. He is going through a stage where nothing matters. He is like it’s good to be at home and do the things that he wants. Also he is kind of having suicidal thougts. He has an obsession for Angela because he is in big trouble but he is hoping for her to call him and tell him that she misses him.

Blue Angel

Swenson's life is just rapidly falling apart, it's like one thing after the other. his wife decides to leave him, his daughter wants nothing to do with him and he's being sued for sexual harassment for something by someone he thought had feelings for him. 

blue angel

Its looking really tough for Swinson, he’s at his all time low and losing himself more and more. Alcohol is like his best buddy and he just turns to drinking whenever he can. He’s losing important people in his life because of the way he acts now, overall he has become lazy and doesnt really know what to do anymore.

Blue Angel

I think this part of the novel is important because now Swenson is dealing with the aftermath of cheating on Sherrie. Sherrie moves out and Ruby tells him that she’s going to stay with her on a Christmas. Swenson has to adjust to his new single life, for example, we can see that Swenson isn’t very familiar with cooking as Sherrie usually cooked for them. He is now suffering the consequences from the results of his actions.

Blue Angel

This section of the book is important because Ted has lost everything he’s had in life, his wife left him and is moving out, and he finds out his daughter Ruby isn’t coming home for Christmas, but instead she’s going to the farmhouse with Sherrie and Arlene. He goes to try and get the film blue angel because he remembers how Angela might’ve watched it and they spoke about it when they were in his office, and he hopes that Angela watches it and is thinking of him. He compares himself to Professor Rath, acknowledging how all along Ted himself has been the clown by playing himself, being tricked and loosing all of his power, loosing his wife and his job, in favor to rewarding Angela to get her novel published.

In this scene of the book , it seems like Swenson’s life is slowly but sure falling apart . His wife has decided to leave him and his daughter no longer wants to speak to him. Without his wife , he has to actually learn how to do this on his own and find other activities to do. He doesn’t know how to cook at all so resolves to microwave dinners but get tired of them. Drinking makes everything feel better to him , so he drinks every single day. He sees the movie blue angel and this peaks his interest but he’s not quite ready to take it on.

Blue Angel

Swenson has given and up and it seems like he’s lost hope. His wife and daughter don’t want to be around him and they are not wrong. He’s been drinking often which shows he doesn’t want to face reality and wants to numb his emotions. He is experiencing the dullness in his life without Sherrrie. He can’t even seem to cook for him self which shows how dependent he was of her.  Him wanting to get the Blue Angel from the store shows that he feels like the professor in there. He considers suicide but realizes he shouldn’t follow the footsteps of his father.

blue angel

I think this is important to the book because it is showing pretty much how Swenson's life is going, we started out reading about how he has a bit of a drinking problem and then being told hes basically going to be alone on Christmas. I think the author is trying to show us that Swenson's life is going a little downhill.

Blue Angel

This scene is important because his life is slowly falling apart. His family lost all respect for him and moved out. Swenson thinks drinking will solve all his problems.

Blue Angel

Ted Swensen has ultimately come down to his breaking point, and he himself already knows it, and has so much guilt and worries and gets overwhelmed while confessing to Sherrie. She leaves him, and goes to live in the farmhouse with Arlene, and he gets a call from his daughter Ruby saying what he did was messed up to mom, and she tells him she’s staying with Sherrie at Arlene’s farmhouse for Christmas. He was hoping she’d forgive him, but he’s lost everything he had in life. He struggles to cook at home and misses the scenery of his wife around. We find out Angela is suicidal and goes to a clinic most of her life, and Sherrie knows her. The breaking point gets so crucial that Ted starts to acknowledge how he’s been blackmailed by Angela and how miserable his life is, and he watches the film Blue Angel and he compares himself and Angela to Professor Rath and Lola Lola, how people with the most power get fooled by throwing away their lives and losing everything they had, In favor to reward someone for something.

Blue Angel

All of this is kinda confusing to me because why would Angela try to expose Swenson if she got what she wanted.. which is getting a contract with his editor.

Finishing Blue Angel

There are so many rich scenes at the end of the novel. Choose one of the following  to write about:

• In the dean's office (which reminds Swenson of a high-end London brothel) where the tape is played.
• The restaurant where Swenson confesses to Sherrie.
• Watching The Blue Angel (pp. 264-266).
•  The last chapter which is a sort of courtroom scene.
• The final scene w/ the deer and the bells tolling.

The ending is what I would call an "open" ending. Things aren't neatly tied up. What do you think  happens next? Were you satisfied by the ending? Why or why not?

What final thoughts do you have about the novel?