Divine Power and Divine Retribution in Jose Saramago’s Blindness Essay

church objet dart force out and Divine Retribution in Jose Saramagos BlindnessIntroduction Often, writers in literature pilfer from the world of reality in their quest to accede compelling characters and gripping plots. Nonetheless, others replicate the real world in an execute up sense to sensitize or communicate the malicious and malignant threats, epidemics and plagues usual in the world. Such episodes of these phenomena inflict mass threats and destructions, nefarious villains as rise up as ingenuous victims who apparel and enthr wholly novelists. In some instances, providential retribution follows the nefarious villains as easily as grapples the ignorant innocent victims. This is well presented by Jose Saramago in his epic novel, Blindness. This paper explores presage former as well as presage retribution in the hold Blindness by Jose Saramago arguing that god intervention follows in instituting justice. Besides, divinity intervenes to punish ignorance. Indeed, the novel does non state explicitly that the onus of the fleetly hitting epidemic is resultant from the hands of a heaven-sent military unit such as God. However, the author does not resist writing on a divine power, God. This is because Jose Saramago introduces and trails the action of the churches in supplementing the governments drift to shoot the situation. Moreover, there are multiple references to church leaders all observable in the novel. Besides, Jose Saramagos presentation in the novel suggests that divine retribution followed a nefariously villainous person. He or she was inflicted or struck with sightlessness. Additionally, it is interesting to note that literal authors pecknot write a masterful work in a spiritual, religious or cultural vacuum. Deductively, it is pellucid that Saramago alludes to divine intervention and divine retribution. interestingly, the Blindness novel depicts a stir plot with an incessantly straying vote counter from presentation of di alogues and facts to reflection on moral academic and ethical analysis at great lengths. Divine intervention and retribution features at the onset of the story in the start page. It is here that the author dexterously delineates in detail the expected features at an ordinary road intersection. These include move back and forth of lights and pedestrians crossing the road. Everything is a routine, and the events expand as usual. However, a railroad car at the intersection does not move or poleue way to the traffic behind, in spite of the flickering green light, creating an unusual situation. The author is innate to this situation and goes on to get wind rational motives behind the cars stillness. He states, there do to be some mechanical flaws, a loose accelerator, a stuck accessory level, suspension problems (1-2) and many other listings of things that could have gone wary. This situation does not go unnoticed because a bystander comes to the attention of the driver. He open s the door contagious the attention of the driver as well as the commentator. It then dawns to the contributor that the driver was struck with screen doorness. This is rather bellowing and discomforting. It is not incidental that silver screenness just hit the driver cum blind. The cause of the blindness can only be explained in terms of divine retribution or intervention. Saramago twists and turns the novel literally betwixt calamities. The Good Samaritan that came to the aid of the blind man later emerges that he is a thief. On driving the old man home, he steals his car. It is rather ironical that the good natured helper turns to be an immodest, dead and hands down thief. Indeed, it is immoral for an able person to take vantage of a handicapped person and exploit them taking advantage of their helplessness. The subscriber is appareled by the thief and only wishes for divine punishment. Therefore, the thiefs catching of blindness comes as a sigh of relief to the proofreade r for what he or she considers as an immoral and ungracious act. The scene of the great unwashed being struck with blindness becomes an incessant phenomenon in the following pages. The storyteller trails the lives of victims, and it emerges that they all had crossed paths one way or another. It is here that the narrator philosophizes divine retribution and intervention as calamity strikes the nation destruction and resulting to outbursts among batch with Im blind, Im blind uproars. In a series of skits between philosophical argument and conventional wisdom, the narrator presents a vivid account of the actions and motives of the escort and the car thief. Finally, blindness strikes these characters abundant before the narrator can conclude on the cause of the plague. Interestingly blindness strikes immediately without any bouts to announce its arrival. Divine retribution causes a fierily spread of the plague without a scientific explanation or physical symptoms. Blindness strikes s wiftly, strangely and impartially. For instance, the doctor realizes that he too is blind while watching television. The plague replicates in nature and strangeness to ancient floods and plagues that were acts of divine retribution such as in the bible. A twist to divine retribution is protracted from the doctors wife. She is the only victim of blindness who separates human flaws and godly affairs thereby attributing the epidemic to divinity. harmonise to her, this is unbearable filth of the soul of a human. Of the human body (279). accord to the narrator, she said, as if to correct this metaphysical thought, then she added, it is all the same (Saramago 279). The reader is left the quarry of the thoughts of divine power and retribution. Arguably though, why does divine power not punish the malicious and nefarious villains, as well? Thomas Talbott in his article, Punishment, mercy and Divine Judgment argues that retributivist punishment theory. He justifids punishment by question ing if the punishment befits the error or offence committed. Therefore, punishment is not a rehabilitation or crime disincentive tool but a justice and equality feature (Talbott, 154). provided want other narrations, the Blindness narrator is obsessed with the behavior of people when put under extreme conditions. It is interesting to see the huge and expansible wary and panic among people following the blindness plague. Indeed, such a mega scale panic and social disarray contends the prevalence of a divine power with much stronger abilities than man can think. Different institutions in the monastic order fall and crumble thanks to the plague for fear of the plague. The military cannot contain the massively and swiftly spreading plague create a fondness of battle and confusion amidst the crisis. The government is in any case initiated into the crisis. It imposes a quarantine sudor to control the contagion unsuccessfully resulting to collapse of the media, military and busine sses. Divinity fabling is also evident in the identity of the characters in the novel. For instance, the author does not give them real names but rather opts to identify them in generic wine form. For instance, there is the blind man, the Good Samaritan cum the car thief, the doctor, the doctors wife among many others. The book begins with the first blind man trailing him as his eyesight elopes while at an intersection, in his car. The first blind man is rescued by the Good Samaritan who takes him home. Later on, the good Samaritan steals his car and eventually loses sight. Indeed, divine retribution strikes and the thief is blinded just like other noble souls. The level of blindness infliction is as a resultant of divinity. It trails people who have crossed paths. For instance, the doctor was struck with blindness. Interestingly, he had attempted to treat the first blind man. People who had sat at the waiting room also got struck with blindness. Saramago presents the proclamations of the churches and the church leaders, as well. They preached the end times claiming that the world was coming to an end. The narrator states, they were proclaiming the end of the world. He adds that they preached, redemption through the visions of the seventh days, through penitence, the purity and sanctity of the lymph, the scurrilous cats blood, the sleep of the shadow, the logic of anthropophagy, the rising of sea, painless castration and mainly divine tattoos.. (Saramago, 298). This presents the existence of divine power that claimed the people.ReferencesCooper, Kate, and Thomas Talbot. Punishment, Forgiveness and Divine Judgment. Retribution, repentance, and reconciliation papers read at the 2002 Summer showdown and the 2003 Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical account Society. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK Published for the Ecclesiastical History Society by the Boydell Press, 2004. 154. Print.Saramago, Jose. Blindness a novel. New York Harcourt, 1998. Print.Source archive