Blind as a Bat

Her vision clouds her inner vision's ability to realize that he is trying to be being polite. Her lack of vision is seen again when she comes downstairs and realizes that Robert and her husband are smoking a joint. She is completely confused about Robert smoking marijuana. "My wife came back downstairs wearing her pink robe and her pink slippers. 'What do I smell?' she said. 'We thought we'd have us some cannabis,' I said. My wife gave me a savage look. Then she looked at the blind man and said, 'Robert, I didn't know you smoked.' He said, ' I do now my dear. There's a first time for everything. But I don't feel anything yet." Here you can see the narrator's wife numb to the idea of smoking marijuana with her guest. In her blindness, she does realize that other people might smoke marijuana. That is why she gave her husband "a savage look." She did not realize that anyone else she knew smoked marijuana. In Chinua Achebe's short story, "Girls at War" there is a blindness in the character of Reginald Nwankwo. He was blind to see his future right in front of his face even when she stopped him and searched his car. "All right sir, close it." Then she opened the rear door and bent down to inspect under the seats. It was then he took the first real look at her, khaki jeans and canvas shoes with the new-style hair-plait which gave a girl a defiant look and which they called - for reasons of their own - "air force base"; and she looked vaguely familiar. The narrator later continues to tell about how they had met each other before. Here Reginald does not realize what he is seeing. He is looking at a girl and can realize that she is pretty. However his vision stops at the surface and he does not realize that she is trying to get to know him. Later in the story, Reginald meets her again. This time he sees her when he goes to get supplies for himself and his family. When he meets her, she is walking home and he picks her up in his car like a hitch-hiker.