{"id":32448,"date":"2021-04-04T08:35:28","date_gmt":"2021-04-04T12:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=32448"},"modified":"2021-04-20T19:35:07","modified_gmt":"2021-04-20T23:35:07","slug":"blindness-in-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"Blindness in Literature Is Usually Symbolic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What does it mean when an author includes a blind character in literature? How do authors sometimes include metaphorical blindness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blind characters are difficult to write because the author needs to describe how that character will navigate the world. So why write a blind character? Because both literal and metaphorical blindness are important symbols in literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn more about what blindness means in literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Blindness<\/strong> in Literature<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Writing a blind character into a story comes with a lot of complications to the author\u2014such as how the character will move around and be a part of the narrative. For that reason, when you see blindness in literature, take notice. <strong>A blind character is a sign that themes of metaphorical blindness, sight, or insight will be issues in the work<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many novels have themes of blindness versus sight, but not all of them have a blind character. So why do some authors feel the need to add a blind character into their writing? Simply put, <strong>to make the theme more obvious for the reader<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you see a blind character in a novel, you\u2019ll instinctively look out for metaphorical blindness, as well. As a result, you\u2019ll be more observant of the language and imagery that the author uses to depict that theme throughout the story.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Example: In James Joyce\u2019s <em>Araby<\/em>, the very first sentence contains the word \u201cblind.\u201d That alerts the reader to be on the lookout for other references to blindness versus sight. Throughout the story, the main character is using his sight in different ways: peeking out from behind \u201cblinds,\u201d being \u201cblinded\u201d by his own tears, and mentally envisioning himself as a hero.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Without a direct mention of blindness in a story, readers might not know the right questions to ask while reading\u2014like <em>why is the author making use of language related to sight and blindness? <\/em>By making the theme more obvious with the use of a blind character,<strong> the author is guiding the reader on <\/strong><strong><em>how <\/em><\/strong><strong>to read the novel<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Sophocles\u2019 <\/strong><strong><em>Oedipus Rex<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, in <em>Oedipus Rex<\/em>, the title character kills his father and marries his mother. Because Oedipus is blind to his own identity, he is blind to his crimes\u2014he even volunteers to hunt down the criminal. He summons someone to come in and help him shed light on the mystery. And when this information specialist arrives, we see that the specialist is literally blind.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While it is the information specialist that lacks sight in the literal sense, it is Oedipus who is figuratively blind to his own circumstances. When the truth finally comes <em>to light <\/em>(another use of language that suggests sight in the metaphorical sense), Oedipus is so distraught that he blinds himself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Sophocles&#8217; later work <em>Oedipus at Colonus<\/em>, we see that Oedipus has suffered through his blindness for years. But he has come to earn favor in the eyes of the gods, and he dies a respectable death. Finally, Oedipus has developed a kind of vision that he never had while he actually had use of his eyes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What does it mean when an author includes a blind character in literature? How do authors sometimes include metaphorical blindness? Blind characters are difficult to write because the author needs to describe how that character will navigate the world. So why write a blind character? Because both literal and metaphorical blindness are important symbols in literature. Keep reading to learn more about what blindness means in literature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":32480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,21],"tags":[264],"class_list":["post-32448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-philosophy","tag-how-to-read-literature-like-a-professor","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Blindness in Literature Is Usually Symbolic - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why do many literary works allude to blindness? Because both literal and metaphorical blindness are important symbols in literature.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blindness in Literature Is Usually Symbolic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why do many literary works allude to blindness? Because both literal and metaphorical blindness are important symbols in literature.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-04T12:35:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-20T23:35:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/eyes.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1070\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"708\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hannah Aster\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hannah Aster\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hannah Aster\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f\"},\"headline\":\"Blindness in Literature Is Usually Symbolic\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-04T12:35:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-20T23:35:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/\"},\"wordCount\":526,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/eyes.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"How to Read Literature Like a Professor\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Education\",\"Philosophy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/\",\"name\":\"Blindness in Literature Is Usually Symbolic - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/eyes.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-04T12:35:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-20T23:35:07+00:00\",\"description\":\"Why do many literary works allude to blindness? Because both literal and metaphorical blindness are important symbols in literature.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/eyes.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/eyes.jpg\",\"width\":1070,\"height\":708},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Blindness in Literature Is Usually Symbolic\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f\",\"name\":\"Hannah Aster\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0302cb2690b70a21639bc6873e587f42d39d02385b7e59d8efd0d3e000ae7681?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0302cb2690b70a21639bc6873e587f42d39d02385b7e59d8efd0d3e000ae7681?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Hannah Aster\"},\"description\":\"Hannah is a seasoned writer and editor who started her journey with Shortform nearly five years ago. She grew up reading mostly fiction books but transitioned to non-fiction writing when she started her travel website in 2018. When she's not writing or traveling, you can find Hannah working on home reno projects, crafting, or taking care of plants.\",\"knowsAbout\":[\"Graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English and minors in professional and creative writing\"],\"jobTitle\":\"SEO Team Lead\",\"worksFor\":\"Shortform\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/hannah\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Blindness in Literature Is Usually Symbolic - Shortform Books","description":"Why do many literary works allude to blindness? Because both literal and metaphorical blindness are important symbols in literature.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Blindness in Literature Is Usually Symbolic","og_description":"Why do many literary works allude to blindness? Because both literal and metaphorical blindness are important symbols in literature.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-04-04T12:35:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-04-20T23:35:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1070,"height":708,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/eyes.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Hannah Aster","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hannah Aster","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/"},"author":{"name":"Hannah Aster","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f"},"headline":"Blindness in Literature Is Usually Symbolic","datePublished":"2021-04-04T12:35:28+00:00","dateModified":"2021-04-20T23:35:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/"},"wordCount":526,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/eyes.jpg","keywords":["How to Read Literature Like a Professor"],"articleSection":["Education","Philosophy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/","name":"Blindness in Literature Is Usually Symbolic - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/eyes.jpg","datePublished":"2021-04-04T12:35:28+00:00","dateModified":"2021-04-20T23:35:07+00:00","description":"Why do many literary works allude to blindness? Because both literal and metaphorical blindness are important symbols in literature.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/eyes.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/eyes.jpg","width":1070,"height":708},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/blindness-in-literature\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Blindness in Literature Is Usually Symbolic"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f","name":"Hannah Aster","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0302cb2690b70a21639bc6873e587f42d39d02385b7e59d8efd0d3e000ae7681?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0302cb2690b70a21639bc6873e587f42d39d02385b7e59d8efd0d3e000ae7681?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Hannah Aster"},"description":"Hannah is a seasoned writer and editor who started her journey with Shortform nearly five years ago. She grew up reading mostly fiction books but transitioned to non-fiction writing when she started her travel website in 2018. When she's not writing or traveling, you can find Hannah working on home reno projects, crafting, or taking care of plants.","knowsAbout":["Graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English and minors in professional and creative writing"],"jobTitle":"SEO Team Lead","worksFor":"Shortform","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/hannah\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/eyes.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32448"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33050,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32448\/revisions\/33050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}