Literary Analysis Of 'The Man Who Had No Eyes'

The Man Who Had No Eyes

The Man Who Had No Eyes is a story about a blind beggar named Markwardt and his encounter with Mr. Parsons, a well-to-do insurance salesman. begins to tell the story of how he was trampled by a coworker as they both tried to escape the tragic chemical explosion that stole his vision when Mr. Parsons stops him. It is revealed that Markwardt has been lying for fourteen years, he wasn’t trampled. He was the one who pushed Mr. Parsons down to escape faster. Markwardt gets angry, protesting that it doesn’t matter because he’s the one who’s blind. However, that’s not completely true either. Mr. Parsons is blind too. The Man Who Had No Eyes shows that it’s not the situation being faced, but rather the attitude of the person facing it that determines the outcome. Because Markwardt didn’t believe he could overcome his disability, he truly couldn 't. However Mr. Parsons worked hard to be successful regardless, and as a result is much better off in life. Below is an analysis of how three different literary conventions …show more content…
In The Man Who Had No Eyes the narrative voice is third person omniscient. This can be determined due to the fact that the narrator is neither of the characters in the story, but the narrator knows what both of the characters are thinking. For example, the narrator describes Mr. Parsons’ pity as well as his joy to be alive on the first page, and also knows that one of Markwardt’s motivation for telling his story is the thought of more half dollars in Mr. Parson’s pocket. In this story particularly, you can determine the narrator has more knowledge than the characters because both Mr. Parsons and Markwardt are blind, but the sunlight “yellowing the asphalt” is described, not only the fact that the sun was shining and they could feel the warmth on their skin. There would be no way a blind character could know how the sunlight looked as it was