Short Story Review: "The Man Born Blind" by C. S. Lewis

Synopsis:

Robin is a man, blind from birth, who has recently had an operation facilitating sight, growing increasingly frustrated with his inability to see Light. On a day when he finds himself free of the company and solicitude of his wife, he spends the morning in the old comfortable habits of blindness, then sets out to find, once and for all, the mysterious thing called Light. His failure to understand that light is what one sees by, rather than a tangible object that one sees, leads to disastrous consequences.

Comments:

Just five pages in length, this story is dense with metaphor and meaning. In his essay “On Stories,” Lewis says, “We do not enjoy a story fully at the first reading. Not till the curiosity, the sheer narrative lust, has been given its sop and laid asleep, are we at leisure to savour the real beauties.” I would modify that a bit and say that “The Man Born Blind” cannot be fully grasped, its depths not fully sounded, at the first reading.