ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE POST 7

"No one knew exactly when she had begun to lost her sight. Even in her later years, when she could no longer get out of bed, it seemed that she was simply defeated by decrepitude, but no one discovered that she was blind. She had noticed it before the birth of Jose Arcadio. at first she thought it was a matter of a passing debility and she secretly took marrow syrup and put honey on her eyes, but quite soon she began to realize that she was irrevocably singking into the darkness, to a point where she never had a clear notion of the invention of the electric light, for when they put in the first bulbs she was only able to perceive the glow. She did not tell anyone about it bcause it would have been a public recognition of her uselessness. She concentrated on a silent schooling in the distances of things and people's voices so that she would still be able to see with her memory what the shadows of her cataractsno longer allowed her to. Later on she was to discover the unforseen help of odors, which were defined in the shadows with a strength that was much more convincing than that of bulk and color, and which saved ehr finally from the shame of admitting defeat. In the darkness of the room she was able to thread a needle and sew a buttonhole and she knew when the milk was about to boil. She knew with so much certainty the location of everything that she herself forgot that she was blind at times. On one occasion Fernanda had the whole house upset because she had lost her wedding ring, and Ursula found it on a shelf in the children's bedroom"

This passage contains irony. Ursula is blind, and has been for many years; however, not a single person has been receptive enough to notice. Although she can no longer see, her senses are somehow sharp enough to make her more able than the average person- she can thread a needle effortlessly, utilize odors for direction and sense the readiness of boiling milk. While searching for a small, hard to find item with a number of seeing people, she is the one who finds it in an odd place. Although her sight is damaged, it is clear that she is otherwise not "blind" at all. Irony is also present when you further compare her next to the people around her. Not only is she apparently more capable, their lack of awareness for her very obvious and debilitating condition represents blindness in themselves. They are not able, after many years, to realize that someone very close to them cannot even see. They are so consumed with themselves they have not taken the time to realize the extreme state of their loyal caregiver, who although is impaired still realizes everything about them.