THE EYES HAVE IT (Questions & Answers)



THE EYES HAVE IT

Ruskin Bond

1.      Comment on the title of the story, The Eyes Have It.


Ø  The story lies in the eyes of the protagonist. Ironically, these eyes do not have the power to see beyond. Scientifically, the physical eyes are only media through which the mind sees. Both the narrator and the girl play the mind game sans their eyes, yet, paradoxically, taking their eyes in. Thus, ‘seeing’ becomes the pivot around which the theme of the story revolves. The title connotes differently since what the eyes have cannot be fathomed easily – whether “it” is seeing or blindness, mind game or ignorance, imagination or reality. Indeed, it truly reflects the trivia the story seems to achieve. The narrator declares, “I was totally blind”, and he goes on to ask the girl, “What is it like outside?” and “Have you noticed ...?”. But his eyes, which are “sensitive only to light and darkness”, receive an insight when the new passenger says, “It was her eyes I noticed.” The irony in the title heightens as “the man” asks, “She was completely blind. Didn’t you notice?”. The eyes of this third person help resolve the game of eyes.

2.      How does the narrator play ‘a game’ with his co-passenger in the train?


Ø  The game the narrator plays while journeying in a train is not to let his fellow-traveller come to know that he is blind, in spite of having an enjoyable, warm conversation with him/her. At the outset, the narrator initiates a dialogue in a casual but affectionate tone. Then he proceeds to win his co-passenger’s heart by means of praise and flattery. His wit is reflected when he heaps praises on the girl, saying, “You have an interesting face”. He talks with no inhibitions; his queries and comments tend to please the other in the compartment. As a result, he succeeds in making the girl say, “You are a very gallant young man”. The amicable approach of the narrator, his wit and humour, his picturesque talks about hills, seasons, and his daring flattery help him play the game.

3.         Comment on the theme of “seeing”.

Ø  At the outset of the story, The Eyes Have It, the narrator declares that he is “totally blind”, but he intends to see through the event. To the remark of the girl that she feels she is alone in the compartment, he blurts out that he has also not seen the girl enter there, and wonders how he would conceal his blindness from her. Then, for him, the game of “perceived seeing” goes on. The girl, however, sees through the eyes of the narrator, as she hears him say, “The trees seem to be moving...”, and, as she gets answered that he does not see any animals outside. The “seeing” of the girl is, thus, an indirect viewpoint of the narrator. An added dimension and connotation to the theme of “seeing” is struck when the new passenger reveals, ironically and judgmentally, what he sees, and this intrigues the very art of insight into “seeing” observed so far.     

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