Friday, September 6, 2019
To See and Not See Essay Example for Free
To See and Not See Essay Have you ever been blind and then regained your sight even for a little while? Here’s another interesting question. If you have been blind and regained your sight for just a little while then, how would you think and how would you feel? It is imaginable that you might experience happiness and excitement at being able to see a world that had been hidden from you for so long; then, after a bit you might experience anger and frustration because of the difficulty adjusting to life as a sighted person. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that these and many other emotions were felt by Virgil, Amy, and his family when he regained his sight after being blind for most of his life. However, despite an operation to regain his sight Virgil loses his sight again.            Both the book To See and Not See by Oliver Sacks and the dramatic movie called Love at First Sight starring Val Kilmer as Virgil and Mira Sorvino as Amy tell Virgil’s remarkable story as his travels from darkness to light back to darkness again. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the story and the movie. In addition, I will provide some personal reflection concerning how I would function in everyday life if I were blind.            The movie called At First Sight and the story To See and Not See has many differences. Some differences between the story and the movie are important to how the reader/viewer makes note of the key differences and some differences between the story and the movie aren’t important to how the reader/viewer look at the differences between the two mediums. There are many case studies of other blind people who have regained their sight for a while just like Virgil’s case. In fact, the story illustrated these other case studies such as a patient who went by the initials H.S. in order to compare and track Virgil progress and regression after the operation (Sacks, 1994, 10). The movie didn’t talk about other people who had been blind almost the entire lives and then regained their sight for a short time. This difference isn’t important to the evaluation of the two mediums.            In contrast, there is a difference between the story and the movie that does make an important difference in looking at the key points between the two genres. In the story Virgil and Amy had met and dated many years before they met again and ultimately married and in the movie Amy and Virgil had never met before they met at the spa. In addition, Amy in the movie had never been married and Amy in the story had been married before when she met Virgil. This is an important difference because some people when they have gone through life changing events such as moving and divorce would contact someone they liked and felt comfortable around. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that Amy would contact Virgil who she had dated before and felt comfortable with him. Also, the fact that in the story Amy and Virgil got married and in the movie Amy and Virgil are just dating make a huge difference because married people might stay together in times of crisis and a dating couple may decide that being together in times of crisis isn’t worth it and they may break up.            Also, I think that the fact that Amy has health problems in the story and she doesn’t have health problems in the movie provides her with different motivations for Virgil having the operation to restore his vision. In the movie At First Sight, Amy motivation for Virgil having the operation may be grounded in the fact that they are involved in a new love relationship. Also, she could wish Virgil to have the eye surgery because she is a perfectionist and if he has the operation to restore he will be perfect in her eyes (At First Sight, 1999). In the movie it seems as if Amy equates having the operation with having the â€Å"perfect†life with Virgil. In contrast, Amy in the story has health problems herself such as diabetes and asthma. In fact, Amy had to quit her job as a botanist due to her asthma (Sacks, 1994, 5). In the story, it seems as if Amy’s motivation for Virgil having the operation involves trying to help Virgil get better using the doctors that Amy uses to help her with her eye check ups due to diabetes (Sacks, 1994, 5). Due to the different motivations that prevail for Virgil having the operation the viewer of the movie might see Amy as selfish whereas the reader might feel for Amy and root for her and Virgil because of their health problems.            I think that it is hard to give a concrete answer to the question whether operations to restore sight should be performed. It seems as if both in the movie and in the story Virgil had more problems when he could see than when he was blind. In the story when Virgil was blind he enjoyed life more because he loved going to the zoo to touch the gorillas and the giraffes. He also loved listening to baseball games when he was blind. However, when he could see and he went to the zoo he wasn’t allowed to touch any of the animals. Therefore he didn’t enjoy the zoo. Also, he lost his job due to complications from the operation (Sacks, 1994, 15, 20). Therefore, it seems that Virgil had freedom and independence when he was blind and he acted like a scared little child when he could see a bit. In fact, in the movie Virgil screams when he hears loud horns and sees bright colored cars coming at him (At First Sight, 1999). Therefore, based on these two examples it would seem that there needs to be more discussion and thought before allowing operations that restore sight. I think that people who have had their sight restored should have the option to have a Seeing Eye dog until they adjust to the world as a sighted person.            If I were blind then, I would have to have to have much help in learning to adjust to not being able to see. I am an avid reader and I love to cook and bake. Therefore, it would be hard getting used to reading with my hands and learning a different way of cooking and baking. I would be frustrated if I regained my sight and then lost it again I feel for Virgil in both the story and as I watched the movie. However, I felt more sympathy for Amy in the story rather than Amy in the movie. I think the moral of both the story and the movie is sight doesn’t always give you the freedom or perfection that you seek.
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