Does the experience in the quarantine provide any critique of forms of government?
The experience in the quarantine really provides two different, competing models for systems of government. The first, the regime of the doctor, is democratic but inefficient. The internees must work things out among themselves. The second, the regime of the man with the gun, is efficient but totalitarian. This leads immediately into corruption and ruin. The novel clearly portrays the democratic regime in a more favorable light. • What is the importance of the fact that the writer who is living in the first blind man’s house keeps writing, even after he is sure no one can read what he has done? The writer who lives in the first blind man’s house keeps writing even though no one can read his work. This is important for two reasons. The first is that the act of writing helps him to remember who he is. The second is that he wants to record what is going on — perhaps not so that someone can read it, but so that he can hold on to the hope that someone will read it. • Why do you think that
