The Country of the Blind

“The Country of the Blind” is a parable critiquing colonialism, highlighting the follies of taking an imperialist attitude to foreign relations. Wells achieves this by showing how the objectives of any colonizing force manifest on a practical level. Nunez does not come to the titular country as an official emissary of the outer world but as an accidental tourist. However, he seeks to impose his way of life on the people he meets and suffers terrible consequences as a result.

Nunez’s colonialist attitude manifests itself as soon as he recognizes where he is. His mind settles on the proverb, “In the Country of the Blind the One-eyed Man is King” (446), which echoes in his thoughts throughout his time in the valley and suggests a hierarchy between Nunez and the blind people. Nunez thinks that because he has sight, he is superior to people who are blind and therefore is fit to rule them. He even goes so far as to suggest that the imperative to rule the blind people is ordained by divine powers when he describes himself as their “heaven-sent king and master” (451), a common strategy that colonizers use to justify their subjugation of a population.