2. INTRODUCTION
The Eyes Have It is a marvellous short story of Ruskin Bond who has used first
person narrative technique in the story. Here everything is narrated by the person
who himself is blind. His eyes are sensitive only to light and darkness. While going
to Dehradun by train he comes across a girl. He starts conversation and gradually
becomes interested in her. He tactfully hides his blindness from the girl to impress
her. But the conversation does not last long. The girl bids him good-bye as the train
arrives at her destination. After her departure, a new male passenger comes into
the compartment. From that man the narrator learns that the girl was completely
blind. The revelation shocks the narrator. He feels that he has deceived himself.
3. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ruskin Bond, born in 1934 at
Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh, is an
Indian writer of British descent. He
is an outstanding figure of
international repute among the
contemporary Indian English
writers. He does much to
standardise our national English
literature. He is a prolific and
powerful writer. He has written
short stories, essays, novels and
children books. The setting of most
of his stories is Dehra, as Malgudi is
for R K Narayan. He has received
many awards.
.
4. CHARACTERS IN THE STORY
The narrator :
He is the main character in the short story, who is travelling to Dehradun alone. He
has been described as being blind. He was a romantic and tries to strike a
conversation with the preety girl sitting next to him.He loves to talk and know more
about the people questioning them about their lives.
The Girl :
she is the passenger who travels with the narrator in the train. She has been
described as being pretty and interesting girl. Later in the story we get to know
about the blindness of the girl.
The fellow passenger :
He is passenger who helps the author realise that the girl he was travelling with was
blind ,just like him.
5. SUMMARY
Up to Rohana, the narrator was alone in the compartment. Her parents bid
her goodbye at the station and were anxious about her well-being and advised
her where to keep her belongings, not to lean out of the windows and to avoid
talking to strangers.
Once the train left the station, the narrator started a conversation asking if
she too was going to Dehradun. The voice startled her as she thought she was
alone in the compartment. The girl told him that she was going to Saharanpur
where her aunt would come to take her home. She also envied the narrator as
the hills of Mussoorie, where he was headed to, presented a lovely sight in
October (the month in which the story takes place).
6. After some more interesting talks, the narrator told her, quite daringly,
that she had an interesting face. She was happy at this and replied that it
was indeed a welcome deviation from the often repeated phrase: "You
have a pretty face".
Soon it was time for the girl to bid goodbye as the train arrived at her
destination.Then the author heard a commotion near the door of the
carriage and he could hear a man apologizing. The man then entered the
compartment and apologized, as a matter of fact, for not being as
attractive a traveling companion as his predecessor. When the narrator
asked him if the girl had her hair long or short, he replied with interest
that he had not noticed her hair but only her eyes, which were beautiful
but of no use to her, as she was completely blind.
7. IRONY IN THE STORY
The short story “The Eyes Have It”, is an excellent example of situational
Irony.
Ironically the author employs two blind people as his main characters,yet
neither knows that the other is blind.
The author does not realise that the girl sitting next to him is also blind, even
after listening to her parents's advice and instructions to their daughter.
Hoping to keep her from realising that he is blind,the author describes the
scenery outside from his memories.
To continue the ruse, he tells the girl that an interesting face.
The narrator ends up fooling himself. Appaarently he also mislead the girl
because she did not realise her fellow traveller was blind either.
8. LEARNING FROM THE STORY
The story “The Eyes Have It” teaches us a very valuable
lesson.
God has given a fair share of luck and talent to each and
every individual in this world,so instead of hiding our story
comings ,we must aprreciate What we have and not
complain about what we do not have.
We ultimately learn a very valuable lesson about the
influence of initial assumptions on the ways we percieve the
world and other persons.
