In the passage “He’s blind for a reason, you know” The author is trying to show how blind we really are when we read and when we go through life. We.

In the passage “He’s blind for a reason, you know” The author is trying to show how blind we really are when we read and when we go through life. We look but we don’t really see. Sometimes our sight is the most blinding thing. We need to try and see the whole picture. “..someone who can shed light on the search he has undertaken, who can show our hero the truth, is summoned” (Foster 201).

In the passage Foster uses references from other stories that show the blind have a better advantage then us. They see beyond sight they see how things truly are. “When the specialist arrives, he’s blind. Can’t see a thing in the world. As it turns out though, he is able to see things in the spirit and divine world…” (Foster 201).

In this passage Foster tries to explain how we don’t always really see things, we remain in the dark with our sight. In all our sight works against us sometimes. He uses an example from a play about a character named Oedipus. One of the main things you need to known is that he’s blind. “Two and half millennia ago Sophocles wrote a play called Oedipus Rex” (Foster 202).

Although Oedipus is blind he always make references to light and seeing. “Oedipus, meanwhile, who will remain in the dark, makes constant references to sight. He will ‘bring the matter to light,’ will ‘look into things,’ will show everyone the truth’” (Foster 202). His family is so torn he doesn’t even know thus making himself blind to what’s really going on.

With every reference to blindness in the play each character shows the lacking of light. Meaning that they really don’t know what's going on. By using the blind character we can instantly assume there’s something important going on. “Clearly the author wants to emphasis other levels of sight and blindness beyond the physical” (Foster 202). The main character Oedipus is physically blind and the other characters with sight are mentally blind. Meaning they don’t really see.

“What we have discussed is absolutely true: when literal blindness, sight, darkness, and light are introduced into a story, it is nearly always the case that figurative seeing and blindness are at work” (Foster 204). Foster is trying to tell us that we shouldn’t be blind to a story or anything else, we really need to see what going on not just look. Looking and seeing are two different things. Seeing means processing and processing leads to comprehending .

We all know after reading Great Expectations that Pip is blind in seeing how good he actually has it. After his sister gets hurt and Biddy moves in he’s blind to the love they have for each other. “’Biddy,’ I said when we were walking homeward, ‘I wish you could put me right.’ ‘I wish I could!’ said Biddy. ‘If I could only get myself to fall in love with you…’” (Dickens 126). Pip is blinded by Estella's beauty and doesn’t see that Biddy is the better choice. Because of this Pip misses his chances with Biddy in the end when he cold of been very happy with her.

I think after reading this story the main thing to get out this is to use your sight. Not just your eyes but see the whole picture mentally and try to fully understand the story. The simplest way to put it is be open to things and acquire a higher level of vision. Remember Oedipus from the story In the end he is lead to death using the power he gained by not having sight. “He has acquired a level of vision he never had when he was sighted” (Foster 206). In all we need to try to see the greater things around us that aren’t in sight.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 2003.Print.

Foster, Thomas C. How to read literature like a professor. New York: Harper-Collins Publishers, Inc.,2003.Print