The Country of the Blind characters

Also known as Nunez

Appears from the start

A sighted mountain guide who survives a fall into an isolated valley whose inhabitants have been blind for generations. Remembering a proverb about the advantage of one-eyed rule, he assumes sight will make him superior, but his hosts regard his unfamiliar claims and clumsy movement as signs of disorder.

Appears from the start

An elder of the valley community and the father of Medina-saroté. He gives Nuñez work and a place within his household, while accepting the community's view that the stranger's talk of sight reflects a troubled mind.

Appears from the start

Yacob's youngest daughter, considered less attractive by her community because her features do not match its ideals. She is gentle toward Nuñez, listens to his descriptions of sight even when she cannot understand them, and returns his love.

Appears from the start

One of the first valley men to encounter Nuñez. Guided by hearing, touch, and the ordered paths of the settlement, he helps bring the confused newcomer before the elders.

Appears from the start

A valley resident who joins Pedro in examining the stranger who has fallen from the mountains. His calm competence in the dark exposes how poorly Nuñez understands the community he expects to dominate.

Appears from the start

The valley's physician, who interprets Nuñez's eyes as abnormal organs that keep his brain in a state of agitation. He proposes removing them as a cure that would make the outsider calmer and acceptable as Medina-saroté's husband.