The Epidemic of "White Blindness"

Jose Saramago has a voluminous imagination. He has made the main characters of the book blind! Though the story has been switching perspectives from a doctor, to two other 'blind' men, a prostitute, and finally ending with the doctors wife who has told everyone she has went 'blind' even though she still has her vision.

I'm foreshadowing that the rest of the book will be told from the doctor's wife's perspective because she is the only person that can see in the group of the characters in the book.

What has happened in the book was that all the 'blind' people: the doctor, a prostitute, the original blind man, the man who stole the blind man's car, and a small 'squinting' boy, and the doctors wife (who has told everyone she is blind, and only her husband knows she isn't), have been transfered into a run down insane asylum. They are locked into the building so that the 'epidemic' won't spread and infect the entire population, causing the world to go into sudden 'white blindness'. They are given directions and orders over a loud system and are to be given food once a day and burn the left overs and trays. The 'blind' people are told that if they burn the building down the firefighters will just let it burn. A sketchy situation I would say.

The end of the chapter has to do with the 'blind' people having to find a bathroom, the little boy wetting himself, the robber and the original man fighting, the prostitute kicking the robber in the leg after he grabs at her, the doctor and wife fixing his wound, the robber jacking off in the bathroom, and ending with them finding beds and going to sleep.