Ayyub and the Cards Dealt to Him - 1130 Words

1. In The Man Who Had No Eyes, MacKinlay Kantor delivers through characters, symbolism, and plot, that when life gives one lemons, make lemonade. 2. Through the characters exemplified in The Man Who Had No Eyes, MacKinlay Kantor delivers the theme that one needs to move on from the past, as self-pity destroys all. 34. It doesn’t take long in the story for us to realize who the homeric pattern will almost perfectly replicate. One of Markwardt’s first actions as the beggar he is to display his arete. He displays his virtues as a beggar through asking Parsons if he â€Å"wouldn’t mind helping a poor guy out† while at the same time offering him a cheap cigarette lighter which Markwardt claims is â€Å"the best cigarette lighter ever made.†. Through the revelation of his arete, we find his hubris as well. He has been blinded by a chemical explosion, and claims with an â€Å"insane sort of pride† that â€Å"they’ve all forgotten about it.† He has a depressing ego streak a mile long, and its abundantly obvious. After a long, drawn out, and utterly false explanation of his sorrows, it slowly but surely becomes clear that this monologue is his atÄ“. Markwardt has attempted to portray himself as the victim, but in fact he was the aggressor, and the worst part of it all is that he is explaining this to the victim himself. What follows are two moments of realization, through which we also find Markwardt’s nemesis. When Parsons reveals that the story told by Markwardt is â€Å"the other way around,† the beggar