When people see the word blindness or hear it being spoken, they automatically associate this word with the physical impairment of being unable to see. Of course, this train of thought is only logical because that is the context in which we hear the word everyday. Although this definition is technically correct, the word can encompass so much more. Blindness extends beyond the physical inability to see, to our failure to see the abstract concepts that surround us. We are all blind to certain truths about ourselves and the world that we live in. This blindness is the source from which many of our actions, problems, and perceptions of the world arise.
As a society, one of the most confounding blindness's we face is our inability to see people for who they are without first judging them on their physical appearance. Who we associate with, who we love, and a lot of times how we perceive people is based largely on their appearance. If a person takes a moment to look around, they will notice that in general, good-looking people associate with people who are also considered pretty or handsome according to society's standards. In Jose Saramago's Blindness, this obstacle or defecit is overcome when he brings together the girl in dark glasses and the old man. Even after they regain their sight and she actually "sees" him for the first time wrinkles, baldness, imperfections, and all, she says to him, " I know you, you"re the man I am living with, in the end these are words that are worth even more than those words that wanted to surface, and this embrace as much as words."(325) Even though the experience of being blind was a tragedy, through this event the girl has learned that what is on the outside only matters a small fraction to what is on the inside. She could have walked away but instead she embraced him and put aside her old notions of the value of physical appearance. She had already "seen" him before she ever laid eyes on the old man.