The Birds

Blindness Essay

“I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days during their early adult life. Darkness would make them more appreciative of sight, silence would teach them joys of sound.” This is a quote by Helen Keller, a woman who is actually blind, I believe that it means that if everybody was blind, then they would be a better person after a life of darkness. We would appreciate what we have more instead of being jealous of people who have more than us. We would be kinder knowing that there are people who have it even worse that us, sometimes have nothing. Many famous works of are depict blindness in their main characters. Examples of this would be A Separate Peace by Jonathan Knowles, or Harold Ramis’s film entitled Groundhog Day staring Bill Murray. In each of these works, the main characters are insecure due to their blindness and end up hurting others in the process.

In the short story, “The Bet”, the main character, a rich banker, does not hurt anyone physically, but hurts himself in the fact that he does not gain anything in the 15 years that the story takes place, he could have learned from his mistake but chose not to because of the blindness that he carried with him. During this period another man, a poorer man, gained something worth much more than money, knowledge. The banker, on the other hand, thought that money was the only importance a man needs, and he learns his lesson by becoming to greedy and losing his money due to his ignorance. While the banker is losing everything he has, the other man, the poorer man in monetary terms, is sitting in a courtyard isolated from society is reading a countless number of books including the bible and many of Shakespeares plays. The banker was too ignorant to see what was really important; he became too avaricious and lost all of his money, hitting rock bottom. When it came time to pay the man, he decided that it was better to kill him, instead of paying him the money, but could not do it. 5 minutes before the end of 15 years the man left the courtyard, taking with him not money, but knowledge.

In the book A Separate Peace by Jonathan Knowles, the main character hurts his best friend because of his blindness which eventually leads to his death. In this story, two best friends are town apart due to ones insecurity. Phineas enjoyed life very much, being athletic and joyous all the time. Gene was very intelligent, perhaps the smartest kid in the school, but he was jealous of his friend, and ended up indirectly killing him due to his jealousy. Because he was ignorant, he thought that he had to be the best at everything, even better than his friend Phineas, even though he knew that he could not. Phineas was happy just the way he was and did not need to be as smart as Gene was. All he cared about was enjoying life. Subconsciously Gene could not stand Phineas, and if he could not be better than him, then he had to eliminate him. Without knowing it, Gene accidentally knocked Phineas off of a tree, causing him to break his leg, and permanently destroying his ability to engage in athletic activities, which Phineas was just fine with. This would eventually lead to Finny’s dead when he would fall down a flight of stairs and die when the doctor was trying to fix it. If only Gene had learned to just be happy with who he was, instead of envying his friend for being better at something than him, then Phineas would still be alive.

In Harold Ramis’s film entitled Groundhog Day, the main character played by Bill Murray again does not hurt others physically, but he hurts others feelings. Phil Connors is a ignorant and insecure weatherman who feels that he has to make other feel bad or inferior in order for him to feel better or superior. He is too blind to see that his words hurt others instead of saying something inspirational to make them feel good. He is unaware that his words can hurt others, so he remains continually stuck in Groundhog Day, until he has learned his lesson and treats others with more respect. After the first time this happened, he figured out what is happening and instead of trying to be a better person he figured that he could get away