physically present, he seems like a character that hangs in the background and doesn’t contribute
much to the story, even though the narrator keeps on talking about him. This shows that while
the narrator is seeing and describing whatever he sees on the surface, the blind man has blended
into the background and seems to be thoroughly observing the events that are going on around
him. However, towards the end, the blind man seems to be the focal point in the revolutionary
moment of the narrator’s sudden grasp of transcendence, as he is the one that guides the narrator
and makes the narrator see what he sees.
This short story written by Carver is about transcendence; about actually, thoroughly and
profoundly seeing things and not merely looking at them. And this notion of transcendence was
clearly depicted through the use of two very dissimilar characters, a shallow man who has been
blessed with the gift of sight and an insightful man who doesn’t possess the ability to see.
However, the blind man is a lot more perceptive as he comprehends and appreciates all that life
has to offer, unlike the narrator. At the end of the story, the narrator reaches a climactic point as
he commences to transcend and to see something beyond the natural and physical level; he
commences to see what the blind man sees. The story has a very abrupt ending as the reader does
not see what happens after this climactic moment, thus the author has left room for the readers to
interpret their own versions of an ending. The final words of the narrator are “it’s really
something” and this demonstrates that even though the narrator went through a profound
moment, he still remains the same inarticulate and simple man he was, thus he is not fully
transformed (p. 13). He is not a different person, but he has experienced something metaphysical.
He has transcended.
5