The Country of the Blind

In terms of structure, Wells’s story can be informally broken down into four sections of action. These sections correspond to major narrative beats that emphasize the larger ideas the story is trying to communicate.

The first section introduces the titular “country of the blind” from an outside perspective. While the entire story is told by an omniscient third-person narrator, this section offers an overview of the geography and environment, establishing setting and helping to create a mystical mood around it. Wells uses a combination of fictional features like Parascotopetl and Mindobamba and real locations like Quito and Yaguachi to lend verisimilitude to the story and, by extension, the community that Nunez finds. It fits in with real places, yet remains untouched by the outer world that surrounds it. 

Wells reinforces the mythical quality of the community with the story of one of its residents, who is stranded outside the valley by a nearby volcano eruption. Everything that those outside the community know about it is the result of his stories of idyllic pastures and landscapes.