Blindness
Humans and animals have been companions for thousands of years. At the surface, it may seem like a purely biologically symbiotic relationship, but while the symbiosis is true, the relationship is deeper than that. Whether either participant is concious of it or not, animals provide a number of emotional and psychological benefits for the human, and vice versa. In the works of fiction we are studying, this relationship is no clearer than in Jose Saramago's novel Blindness, and Sinclair Ross's collection of linked short stories, The Lamp at Noon and Other Stories. In both these works, the animals symbolize human's extreme need for companionship at their neediest times. In Blindness, the dog of tears meets up with the main character, the doctor's wife, when she finds herself lost on her way back from the supermarket. She is walking through a series of streets which all look the same, and realizes she is lost. Due to her extremely low amount of energy at this point, she breaks down for the first time in the book and cries. This is the lowest point of the doctor's wife's confidence and hope: "...drained of any strength, of all strength, she burst into tears" (234). A pack of semi-wild dogs is nearby, and one of them, the dog of tea
"Cornet at Night" is the third story in the collection, and contains a young boy named Tommy, who gets to take his first trip into town by himself with his family's reliable old horse, aptly named Rock. Once Tommy arrives in town he feels insecure and ashamed, but he notices his horse continues a steady demeanor. Tommy expresses his envy for Rock's attitude on page 38: "I wanted to capture some of old Rock's disdain and unconcern". Rock provides Tommy with a confident example to follow in his self conciousness. rs, comes right up to her and licks the tears from her face: "...one of them licks her face, perhaps it had been used to drying tears ever since it was a puppy" (234). She embraces the dog, releasing her anguish, and when she has finished, she looks up from the dog and sees a neighbourhood directory, and finds her way back to the people she was coming back from the supermarket to. Since Saramago's Blindness is a novel, and Ross's Lamp at Noon and Other Stories is not a novel but a collection of short stories, linked as they may be, it is impossible to contextualize each story together at once for the sake of the focus of this essay, so they will be contextualized separately.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Noon Stories, One's Heifer, Bess Paul's, Noon John's, Black Diamond, Lamp Noon, Rock Tommy, , Cornet Night, Noon Storiesprovide, dog tears, doctor's wife, lamp noon, noon stories, story collection, lamp noon stories, doctor's wife's, isabel throws boy, amount energy, isabel throws, human characters, companionship human, low amount energy,
Approximate Word count = 1994
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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