The Country of the Blind

“The Country of the Blind,” originally published in the April 1904 issue of The Strand Magazine, is a short story by English author H. G. Wells. Wells is best known for his pioneering work in the speculative fiction genre, writing landmark novels such as The Time Machine (1895) and The War of the Worlds (1898). His work often critiques the cultural views and behaviors of his time, displaying his well-known socialist perspective. This extends to “The Country of the Blind,” in which Wells examines themes including The Folly of Colonialism, The Challenges of Assimilation, and The Value of Needs-Based Development.

The story takes place in a fictional valley in Ecuador, where a mountaineer named Nunez becomes stranded among a society of people who are blind. Nunez believes that because he has sight, he can rule over his newfound community. He soon discovers that his misguided ways only expose his inability to fit into the country of the blind. The story is one of Wells’s most popular works of short fiction and has been adapted multiple times for radio, stage, and television. 

This guide uses the version of the story included in The Country of the Blind and Other Stories, published in paperback by Oxford World’s Classics in 1996.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of ableism, racism, and gender discrimination.

“The Country of the Blind” is told by an omniscient third-person narrator and set in a fictional valley on the other side of Parascotopetl, a mountain in the Andes. The valley’s community was founded by Peruvian refugees who fled the Spanish Empire’s persecution and hid there; after they arrived, the eruption of a nearby volcano reshaped the valley, sequestering the country from outsiders. 

By chance, a resident of the valley is trapped outside the valley during this eruption, forcing him to live among local miners for the remainder of his life. He describes his home as an earthly paradise filled with fruit, green pastures, and fertile beasts. All the residents are blind, which prompted the resident’s exodus in the first place: He intended to build a religious shrine that would bring about a cure for them. A bar of pure silver is discovered among the man’s possessions, driving the myth of his secret country. 

An Ecuadorian mountaineer named Nunez is guiding a group of Englishmen on their attempt to scale Parascotopetl when he falls off the eastern side of the mountain. Nunez survives the fall but realizes he cannot regain his earlier position. Descending the slope, he discovers a cluster of stone huts and a llama ranch. Nunez soon finds men, women, and children sleeping in a neighboring meadow. He calls the attention of three men and, upon learning that they are blind, realizes that he has arrived at the country of the blind.

Nunez is reminded of a proverb: “In the Country of the Blind the One-eyed Man is King” (447). He introduces himself as a man who has come from Bogotá, a city of the outer world. The three men misinterpret Nunez and believe that his name is Bogotá. They lead him by hand to meet their community. When he is brought to meet the elders in a darkened hut, Nunez stumbles repeatedly, leading the people to describe his senses as “imperfect.” 

No one understands any of the references Nunez makes to sight. They impart their philosophy, which is based entirely on the senses they use. They sleep when it is warm and work when it is cold, having no other way to tell between day and night. From their perspective, the valley constitutes the whole of the world. 

Nunez decides to convince the blind people to accept him as their ruler. He tries to demonstrate how sight allows him to discern the shapes of the town’s paths, but the men show him that they can do the same thing with their hearing, especially since the paths are designed for them. When Nunez tries to explain the beauty of geography to them, they counter with their own interpretation, which renders his argument moot. He tries once again to demonstrate the power of sight by predicting the walking path of a blind man named Pedro. Nunez’s companions are skeptical of his prediction, especially when Pedro subverts Nunez’s expectations by changing his trajectory.

After several more attempts to prove his power over them, Nunez resorts to violence. He tries to subdue a blind man with a spade, but the men immediately sense what he is doing and arm themselves to prevent him from carrying out his plan. A chase ensues, forcing Nunez to retreat from the village, but after two days without food or shelter, he surrenders himself. He repents for his actions and resolves to live as they do. When they ask him about his beliefs about the world, he echoes their beliefs.

The people whip Nunez and assign him to manual labor. He complies. When he falls sick, they nurse him to recovery. Nunez gradually assimilates to life in the country, and he starts to form relationships among its people. He works for a master named Yacob and falls in love with Yacob’s youngest daughter, Medina-saroté. 

Nunez courts Medina-saroté with the intention of winning her hand in marriage. She is charmed by Nunez’s fanciful descriptions of sight, and though she reciprocates his feelings, there is opposition to their marriage. Yacob’s family disapproves of Nunez, seeing him as a deluded “idiot” and a lower-class member of their society. The elders propose to cure Nunez’s idiocy by removing his eyes, which they believe to be the cause of his delusions. Only then can he be considered an acceptable member of society, deemed worthy enough to marry Medina-saroté.

Yacob urges Nunez to go through with the surgery, but Nunez is conflicted about the idea of never seeing Medina-saroté’s face again. Although Medina-saroté admits to loving his imagination, Nunez understands that she wants him to go through with the surgery as well. Nunez gives his consent and spends the next week fearing the loss of his sight. 

On the morning of his surgery, Nunez says goodbye to the vision of Medina-saroté’s face and waits in the meadow for the appointed hour. Compelled by the beauty of nature around him, Nunez examines the valley and remembers the world outside it. He finds a passage that may enable him to escape the valley and decides to follow it. By sunset, he is at the mountain’s summit, where he wonders at the beauty of the rocks, the shadows below, and the sky above. He sits contentedly as the stars appear.