Previous
The writer
The blind accountant is one of the “thugs” who takes control of their group (and their gun) after the doctor’s wife kills their original leader. When the doctor and the first blind man bring turn over their ward’s valuables to the bandits, they notice “the unmistakable sound of punching paper,” which signifies that someone is writing in braille. To have learned braille, this accountant must be a “normal blind person,” who was blind before the epidemic. Ironically, the accountant’s disability turns into an advantage: his literacy in braille and familiarity with life as a blind man give him power over all the people who go blind during the epidemic, which is similar to the advantage that sight confers on the doctor’s wife. These advantages also turn both of them into outsiders, which is why the narrator identifies with the blind accountant at times in the book (for instance, by wondering what his powers could contribute to the other side), despite generally recounting events from a perspective tied to the doctor’s wife.
The blind accountant Quotes in Blindness
The Blindness quotes below are all either spoken by The blind accountant or refer to The blind accountant. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 11
Quotes
Arriving at this point, the blind accountant, tired of describing so much misery and sorrow, would let his metal punch fall to the table, he would search with a trembling hand for the piece of stale bread he had put to one side while he fulfilled his obligations as chronicler of the end of time, but he would not find it, because another blind man, whose sense of smell had become very keen out of dire necessity, had filched it. Then, renouncing his fraternal gesture, the altruistic impulse that had brought him rushing to this side, the blind accountant would decide that the best course of action, if he was still in time, was to return to the third ward on the left, there, at least, however much the injustices of those hoodlums stirred up in him feelings of honest indignation, he would not go hungry.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Blindness LitChart as a printable PDF.
The blind accountant Quotes in Blindness
The Blindness quotes below are all either spoken by The blind accountant or refer to The blind accountant. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 11
Quotes
Arriving at this point, the blind accountant, tired of describing so much misery and sorrow, would let his metal punch fall to the table, he would search with a trembling hand for the piece of stale bread he had put to one side while he fulfilled his obligations as chronicler of the end of time, but he would not find it, because another blind man, whose sense of smell had become very keen out of dire necessity, had filched it. Then, renouncing his fraternal gesture, the altruistic impulse that had brought him rushing to this side, the blind accountant would decide that the best course of action, if he was still in time, was to return to the third ward on the left, there, at least, however much the injustices of those hoodlums stirred up in him feelings of honest indignation, he would not go hungry.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
