Reflection Paper
The country of the blind is a very interesting story. It narrates the journey of a man who discovered a valley where all the people were blind. The whole place was built according to the needs of the residents. They showed creativity and innovation despite their lack of sight. Although for the residents of the country of the blind, they don’t lack something. They treat themselves as normal people. It’s the traveler (Nunez) who is deviant – a fool, according to them.
They are different from ordinary blind people. Blind people in our world knows the concept of sight, some have even experienced seeing at some point in their lives so they knew what it’s like to see. For the ones who became blind in the latter part of their lives, they already have an existing knowledge or picture of the world in their minds. On the other hand, the blind people since birth from our generation have parents or relatives who can feed them information about what the outside world is like. It may not be that clear but their imagination can work on the knowledge provided by their companions. However, these people of old generation don’t even have the concept of sight. They don’t have any relatives or elders who can tell them what seeing is all about. No one could tell them the picture of the outside world. Because of that, their perception of the world was different. They shy away from the idea of seeing because they don’t know what it means. They closed off their minds from what is beyond their smooth walls. For so many years, they believed that the sky is also a solid rock figure above them because the sides of the valley were made of rock. Their belief was a product of their sense of touch. Many concepts and ideas were foreign to them because their lack of sight forbids them to explore the other parts of the world. Like their eyes, their minds were also closed when it comes to something beyond what is on their valley.
Their cognitive map was based on what they hear, smell, touch and taste. Their smelling and hearing were heightened to compensate for their lack of sight and probably because those were the ones they frequently used. These senses give them direction and guidance towards their actions. They didn’t adapt to the world around them. Instead, they thought of ways on how to make their surrounding adapt to their capacities. Nunez even tried to prove them that he was superior because he has the sense of sight but failed because of the resident’s heightened sense of smell, hearing, and adaptability. Their mental map of the place was superior to Nunez’ because know the place and the people better.
If I was the author, I would have ended the story differently. Nunez’ would stay and think of another way for him to marry Medina-sarote. He could use his sense of sight and knowledge of the villagers’ actions to trick them. After that, he could live with them and be truly the King of the Blind.
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