The Eyes Have It by Ruskin Bond I Summary And Analysis

 The Eyes Have It by Ruskin Bond I Summary and Analysis I Irony and Critical Analysis : 

Ruskin Bond is a very famous name in the literary world of the English language of Indian origin. He is a widely read writer and has been awarded Padma Shri (1999), Padma Bhushan (2014), Sahitya Academy award (1992), and many more credits for his valuable contributions in literature. Among his notable works are 

‘The Room on the Roof’, ‘The Angry River’, ‘Rain in the Mountains, ‘Our Trees still grow in Dehra’, ‘The Blue Umbrella’. 

Today we are going to discuss one of his short stories, named “The Eyes Have It’. In this story, Ruskin Bond exploits the situational irony that originates between two people who meet by chance in a railway compartment. Now, we take a look at its summary and then discuss its critical analysis and the irony. 

Summary of The Eyes Have It by Ruskin Bond : 

First of all, we need to know that the narrator of this short story is a blind man. And, the story revolves around his short journey by train to Dehra and then to Mussoorie. The story starts when a girl gets up on the train and takes a place beside the narrator. As the narrator was blind, so he was meditating on her walking sound of the slippers and her voice also.

Then, the narrator started to chitchat with her by asking her traveling destination, where she was going. And the result was Saharanpur. She was going there to meet her aunt. After listening to this statement, the narrator somehow tried to start a healthy flirt and carried on. His statement, “Aunts are usually formidable creatures.” is a perfect example of his flirting behavior. 

After that, the girl did want to take an interest in where the narrator was going. And, the narrator told her that it was Mussoorie where he was going. After hearing this, a sparkle of childish nature was found through her next reply. She said to him, “Oh, how lucky you are. I wish I were going to Mussoorie. I love the hills. Especially in October.” After noticing this type of cravings the narrator gives some more detailed description to the girl and expresses the beauty of Mussoorie in October. However, after a moment the narrator was in confusion that if she thought him a romantic fool as he had given a romantic point of view of that place. Maybe she did think of him as a romantic fool or maybe not, we don’t know. 

After that, the narrator did a mistake and this one was more terrible than the previous one was. He was completely blind and trying to hide his blindness from the girl on the train. He thought he made a mistake by asking her, “What is it like outside?” But, she was not able to catch his blindness at all. “Why don’t you look out of the window?” This statement clears all the doubts of the narrator. And it is very much clear that she is unaware of his blindness till now. 

Thereafter, some random chats were going on. The narrator even gave a compliment to the girl about her beautiful face. In the text, we find this, “Yet I was prepared to sit there for almost any length of time, just to listen to her talking.” This shows that the narrator had almost liked the girl and her voice too. And, we also found that he did like the perfume of her hair also. Although the narrator couldn’t see her, he tried to feel her beauty with the entire four senses as possible. 

However,  after some time the train reached Saharanpur and the girl said to him, “Goodbye.” After her departure, the narrator wondered in his mind that if she wore her hair in a bun or it was plaited. A new fellow passenger gives his answer to this question and reveals a secret also. According to the fellow traveler, “It was her eyes I noticed, not her hair. She had beautiful eyes - but they were of no use to her. She was completely blind. Didn’t you notice?” 

Irony and Critical Analysis of The Eyes Have It : 

We have discussed its summary and now we are going to take some lines from the text and explain.

“Well, it often happens that people with good eyesight fail to see what is right in front of them.” 

Analysis: Now, if we look at this line carefully then we find the normal people, who have good eyesight have been slightly criticized here. It is a general criticism and true also. We, the normal people remain always busy in our day-to-day lives. We passed through a bridge but sometimes failed to observe the beauty of that river. We crossed the road and bypassed the park and often forget to see the beauty of nature (i.e- trees, flowers, birds). And, it especially happens in big towns though but it is a fact. The writer has given an opinion about this matter through the speech of the narrator. He says so because we have too much to take in. And, if we take a look at the text, there the blind man (narrator) doesn’t forget to observe the beauty of the girl, the sound and whistle of the train. Perhaps he meditates on these, it seems like that. 

“ I heard the panting of the engine, the rumble of the wheels, and in my mind’s eye, I could see telegraph posts flashing by.” 

Analysis: This line’s interpretation is almost the same as the given above. There he (the narrator) focuses only on that girl (i.e- her smile, her voice, the sound of her slippers ). Now, he does it with the train (i.e the engine, the rumble of the wheels, etc.). Here, the last line is very well written by the writer. The narrator’s this type of seeing power is somehow indicates his sixth sense. 

“ She had beautiful eyes- but they were of no use to her. She was completely blind. Didn’t you notice?” 

Analysis: The above line is spoken by the new fellow traveler who joins the narrator on the train after the girl’s departure. Here, he has given a statement that is an example of irony we find in the text. Despite having beautiful eyes, she can’t see - sounds amazing right !! However, here we get to know that the girl from whom the narrator tries to hide his blindness is herself blind. And, the last question mark, “ Didn’t you notice?” has been raised to the narrator as well as to us. The Eyes Have It (It- the power to see).