In blindness, Jos? Saramago challenges the morality naturally present in human nature through characters who ignore or abuse the advice provided by sayings. By inserting ancient, vague, and contradictory proverbs, Saramago demonstrates that in difficult times, words become comfort rather than true guidance. He criticizes the use of sayings when one does not follow their advice, suggesting that humans should rely on their own rationality instead of clinging to false morality. Once the blindness epidemic hits, the characters are thrust into a new situation where old morals and proverbs are no longer useful, and they are subsequently deprived of the comfort that counterfeit logic and ethics brought them. The main characters then learn to think critically and reconstruct reason from their own original words, thus giving them organization, rationality, and ultimately sight. As Saramago plunges the world into blindness, it depicts the absurdity of the characters' reliance on old proverbs, revealing that individuals tend to rely on advice they have heard to feel better and not to use logic to draw their own moral conclusions. Saramago distinguishes between words as comfort and words as advice, ultimately warning that falsely using words to make one's intentions appear moral will not actually create morality. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essaySaramago shows characters using proverbs to provide themselves with an invalid sense of moral comfort while acting immorally, ultimately criticizing the pitifulness dependence of humanity on the moral standards of others. created instead of using critical thinking skills. At the beginning of the novel, when the car thief offers to take the first blind man home, he declares: "Now don't think about it, today it's your turn, tomorrow it will be mine, you never know What. could reserve us…”(3). While the car thief says he intends to help the blind man at this point, he later steals his car, indicating that this saying gave him an undeserved sense of righteousness without actually possessing the righteousness himself. morality. The saying “Today is your turn, tomorrow is mine” generally implies that one will try to be helpful for one's own future benefit. However, by having him steal the car, Saramago shows that the car thief does not conform to this standard and is instead unaware of the true meaning of the saying he uses; it therefore also ignores ethical logic, which is obviously absent from human nature. Because the car thief is not yet physically blind at the time of this quote, Saramago demonstrates that people have always been blind to rationality, they simply did not realize it until blindness white forces them to re-evaluate their logic and integrity. The blind population of the asylum laments that no one can sort their food equally, with someone declaring: “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king” (98). Depending on circumstances, what might once have been considered a disadvantage could become an advantage; the "one-eyed" would generally be considered disabled, but in a blind world he has all the power. In this case the benefit would actually be seeing, but their argument is irrelevant because, as far as they know, everyone is blind. The speaker is not thinking rationally about his current situation, he is simply thinking about the past while recitinga proverb he knows, and just adding that proverbial comment does nothing productive. As everyone struggles to live in a blind world, no one knows how to act and goes by the words they are told, demonstrating humanity's pitiful dependence on counterfeit rationality through proverbs . Someone then contradicts this proverb by saying: "If he who divides does not succeed in getting the better part, he is either a fool or a fool." »(99). At this point, everyone is looking for any information that could help them in the situation, even if it isn't actually helpful, as previously stated. This speaker is responding directly to the speaker in the quote above, intending to comfort himself by belittling the other. Even though the previous speaker is not actually "the one who does the sharing", he believes that the one who shares should distribute the food equally, which is why the insult of being "a fool or an idiot" is addressed to him. This accusation makes no progress, but the attacker feels the need not only to call him "crazy" and insult his temporary judgment and rationality, but also "stupid", implying meager intelligence and personality. boring. The selfish need to elevate one's own pride above others in this universally evil situation emphasizes the logic and moral compass that human nature lacks. Furthermore, the contradiction of these two sayings demonstrates that there are, in fact, sayings for almost every point of view, making the use of proverbs essentially futile at any time. Through ineffective insults and contradictory proverbs, Saramago emphasizes the need for logical and ethical thinking and shows that previously established morals become futile with the slightest change in society. As the blind society advances, the main characters begin to adapt to their harsh new environment and think sensibly together to create their own set of morals and standards through "applicable original proverbs", allowing them to rebuild their own organized society and, ultimately, to regain sight; Saramago therefore illustrates that through logic we overcome the immorality of human nature. After a while in the room, the group's mantra becomes: "If we cannot live entirely like human beings, let us do everything in our power not to live entirely like animals" (116). It was the doctor's wife who initially said this to discourage the complete disintegration of society. The advice may seem obvious, but by “not living entirely like animals”, the main characters have set themselves an important principle: maintaining a higher standard of living, and therefore a certain comfort. This “proverb” would never have been applicable before, but it became “a rule of life” (116) for the group, meaning that they had advice to fall back on in most situations. Saramago demonstrates that by creating rules for ourselves based on situational necessity, we apply our rationality instead of relying on advice that is outdated or inapplicable to others. Discussing the horrors that the doctor's wife witnesses in the room with her husband, the doctor states: "Fighting has always been, more or less, a form of blindness" (133). Again, this is not an official proverb, but a short statement with an underlying moral is considered a saying regardless. The doctor goes beyond maintaining a standard of living, he actually maintains ethics. By associating "fight" with "blindness", he suggests that the people involved are too self-absorbed to.