THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND
When our teacher told us that we had to read this story, I didn't feel very excited, but once I become immersed in the reading I enjoyed it immensely....
A Peruvian group fleeing from the lust and tyranny of an evil Spanish ruler, through frightful gorges and over an icy pass, arrived at a gorgeous valley.
It had everything a man could desire, but its inhabitants began to suffer a strange disease: all of them, little by little, became blind.
Due to a natural catastrophe, they remained isolated from the rest of the world. All of them but one, who was forced to start a new life without his family and his friends. He began to tell an amazing story that grew into a legend throughout the Andes...."The Country of The Blind".
By accident, Nuñez, our main character, was trapped in the valley.
On the one hand, when he was aware of the handicap they had, he was so confident that he assumed he could take over this society and make changes in order to enhance their lives. Most of all, he desired to explain to them how the outside world was, making them more open-minded.
On the other hand, the inhabitants of the valley treated him as an inferior person, nearly as an animal. For them, he talked non-sense, and had a brain not as bright as theirs....he was an idiot.
At the beginning he tried to rebel and impose his authority, but after a while putting up a real struggle, he bowed to the evidence that he was no able to do it.
Then, he decided he could submit himself to them. Even though he had fallen in love with one of the inhabitants, the circumstances left him in an enormous state of anxiety. So, on second thoughts, he made up his mind to put an end to the situation and he decided not to renounce everything he had enjoyed and, by the way, taken for granted in his previous life. Love didn't seem to be a strong enough reason to give up his freedom.
At this point, I would dare to say that it was not a real love. I think, it was just the attraction between a couple in the same situation : in a way, and for different reasons , they were discriminated.
The end is not well-defined but I presume that he died in his frustrated attempt to win his yearning freedom.
Although the tale was written more than a hundred years ago, I would firmly recommend it, since it can be a good reflection about intolerance and dictatorship nowadays.
I have understood it as a portrayal of any present society, where people are afraid of the unknown and tend to reject those different from them.
