The reality of humans is bound by so many factors. For instance, disability can confine people to different experiences. In the story, The Country of the Blind, the author takes the reader through an imagined reality where disability is psychologically overcome. Through the life of the main character, Nunez, the short story narrates the fate of an isolated community where everyone is blind. Nunez, on finding himself amongst the community, fails to understand how they live. However, as he continues living among the people, he gets to understand their ways of lives and even marries one of them. The following discourse is a literary analysis of the discourse in reference to disability and how people wrongly perceive it.
Blindness is a form of disability. By definition, disability refers to being physically incapacitated to an extent where one lacks the normal five senses. In the story, blindness is the form of disability that the members of the isolated community in Ecuador face. The story showcases blindness in a way which is unusual. Normally, people with disability are perceived to be unable. However, from the reading the story, one is exposed to a different perspective of thinking which gives insight into the lives of the disabled. I had my own assumptions on disability before reading the story of Nunez. From a young age, I assumed that the disabled were not active members of the society. I always thought that the disables could not be productive members of the society since they had their limitations. Other than that, I assumed that disabled persons led miserable lives since they missed a lot on what normal people do. However, reading the story has really transformed my thoughts. Just like Nunez, for instance, I could not fathom how it felt like having no sense of sight. I always assumed that the blind needed help on so many aspects of life. For instance, when it comes to love, I pitied blind people since I thought they would never had a fair chance of choosing their partners.
