Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Get A Seeing Eye Dog
One can tell just by looking at the title, "Get A Seeing Eye Dog," that the story is about a blind person. Hemingway writes the piece centered around the concept of being blind, both on a literal level (with the main character's blindness) as well as in a metaphorical sense. "Get a Seeing Eye Dog" is not much different from other Hemingway stories, in the sense that the events of the story are primarily communicated through dialogue. In this particular story, Hemingway delves into detail only in passages describing visual imagery.... describing what can't actually be seen. For instance, the first page consists mainly of concise dialogue, but has a descriptive passage about the safari leaving. He speaks about remembering events, clearly describing the events, cherishing the memories. We see this again with a series of short dialogue followed by "you know... I remember it so well that it is palpable," followed by a passage describing what can no longer be seen. The blindness in the story may convey us taking life's events for granted. Perhaps the saying "you don't know what you have until it's gone" applies to this story. The visual images are only fully detailed when they can't be seen and appreciated. Hemingway portrays life as a series of events taken for granted when they can be truly appreciated, and uses the blind man in "Get a Seeing Eye Dog" as a representation of wanting to appreciate the everyday beauties of life, but being incapable of doing so. He remembers moments in time that he commits himself to remembering. The story may be Hemingway's way of saying that the world is blind to the everyday, simple things in life, and doesn't fully realize them or appreciate them until they no longer exist.
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Landon, I liked the idea of a metaphorical aspect of blindness in the story. I had never thought about it that way before. I took it as his blindness was just a roadblock getting in the way of their relationship. This sudden disability affected both her perception of him and his perception of her. I think this was one of the main reasons that they could not see eye to eye. I think her pity was a central aspect of why he wanted to send her away. Philip could not live with the way she always felt sorry for him and looked down on her. However, when I read your response, I realized that there were other non-physical forms of blindness in the story. Like you mentioned, becoming blind does apply to the reader, kind of as a lesson telling people to appreciate life. This metaphorical blindness could also apply to the woman in the story. Even though it she is obviously not physically blind, one can say she is blind to the truth. Things have changed in their relationship since the accident, but she refuses to see these, pretending like nothing is wrong. The truth is that the way he sees her has changed, yet she is still fighting to be a part of his life, even though he obviously does not want that. Your entry helped me to think about aspects of the story that I did not think about before.
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