In his remarkable novel Blindness, José Saramago describes how an enigmatic epidemic of highly contagious blindness transforms not only individuals but an entire nation as well. Society becomes panic-stricken. Cities change into wastelands. The government fails and eventually dissolves. The inhabitants of this unnamed country ultimately come to realize that even when they possessed their sight, the clarity of their vision was sorely lacking. Yet the most virulent contagion in Blindness is not a biological agent. It is fear. The plague incites terror and rapidly spreads it. One character in the novel concedes, “Fear can cause blindness.” Another character reasons, “Fear will keep us blind.” What exactly does fear attack in Blindness? Next to the loss of life itself, human dignity is the greatest casualty of the epidemic depicted in the story. The novel insinuates that the two best traits of human nature are generosity and altruism. These two virtues are among the most easily abandoned in times of catastrophe and often substituted by selfishness and anger. Still, some individuals in the novel continue to act selflessly and logically. Human connection is viewed paradoxically; it is both a vector of and antidote for the epidemic. Saramago’s book explores the relationships between plague and fear, self-preservation and mercy. All the characters in the book are nameless. It is as if monikers are meaningless in a society where people cannot or will not see the truth. One of the main characters in the novel is an ophthalmologist. Before losing his own sight, he examines patients infected by the contagious blindness and discovers that they all have surprisingly healthy eyes except, of course, that they cannot see. The infected eyes, however, remain capable of producing tears. The tragedy and irony of a blind ophthalmologist does not escape the notice of the physician. Stripped of his sight, he acknowledges his current clinical uselessness yet refuses “to surrender helplessly to despair.” The ophthalmologist finds other ways to provide service. He and his wife become the leaders (and the conscience) of a small group that includes some of his patients. The ophthalmologist continues to function as advisor, advocate, and even ethicist—roles familiar to many doctors. His infirmity actually enhances his insight. It is the blind ophthalmologist who voices the paradox of the story: “Perhaps only in a world of the blind will things be what they truly are.” Devoid of sight, lacking hope, and not counting on a cure, the vast majority of these sightless citizens live like animals. Food is scarce. Women are raped and people are murdered. Filth is ubiquitous. Fear of contagion is replaced by fear of the future. Only the simplest of human pleasures—bathing, conversation, and clean drinking water—remind these people that they have not relinquished all human dignity. As suddenly and incomprehensibly as they have been stripped of their sight in the beginning of the novel, vision is miraculously restored to these characters, one by one, at the conclusion of the story. These individuals are cognizant that they are now capable of seeing more clearly than before they were struck blind. The structure of Blindness is pertinent. Sentences run on, bumping into each other, as if they too were blind. Another interesting feature of the book is the lack of quotation marks to indicate dialogue. Saramago’s writing style disorients the reader and leaves the reader groping through the confusing format. Readers share the helplessness and confusion that the characters in the novel experience. The novel cautions, “There are times when words serve no purpose” and also that “words are like that, they deceive, they pile up, it seems they do not know where to go.” Blindness is a powerful symbol, and Saramago, the 1998 Nobel Laureate in Literature, employs it effectively. Characters are blinded in many ways and by many things, which include love, ambition, greed, and of course, fear. The novel raises a haunting question: Is suffering necessary to know the truth? Saramago’s book provides insight into the psychology of plague and human nature. When faced with an epidemic of fear, Blindness proposes a clear-cut remedy: large doses of patience, understanding, and compassion. Perhaps fittingly, the doctor is the character in the novel that identifies both the challenge and hope posed by that remedy: “The difficult thing isn’t living with other people, it’s understanding them.” Tony Miksanek, MD Dr. Miksanek is a staff physician, McKinley Health Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, and an instructor, Department of English, John A. Logan College, Carterville, Illinois.