A Man Who Had No Eyes

At around 1,000 words, “A Man Who Had No Eyes” by American author MacKinlay Kantor (born Benjamin MacKinlay Kantor) can be considered an example of flash fiction. The short story was first published in The Monitor in 1931. It is one of Kantor’s early works of fiction and is markedly different from his later works of historical fiction, which earned him literary fame. Kantor was best known for his prolific novels, many of which are set during the American Civil War. Kantor received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1956 for his Civil War novel Andersonville (1955). He worked in London as a war correspondent for a Los Angeles newspaper during World War II, and he brought his own unique understanding of warfare and its consequences to his fiction.

In “A Man Who Had No Eyes,” the third-person omniscient narrator relays a short but eventful meeting between a well-off insurance salesperson, Mr. Parsons, and a “blind beggar.” The latter accosts Mr. Parsons and insists on selling him a cigarette lighter, as the man refuses charity. After a series of exchanges, Mr. Parsons climactically reveals that he—like the man, whom Mr. Parsons identifies as Markwardt—was blinded in the same factory accident many years ago. The story explores themes of Human Agency and Disability as well as Appearance Versus Reality to depict how two men of similar circumstances respond to their disabilities in different ways. The overarching commentary imparts that character, not disability, defines us and informs how we respond to life’s unforeseen circumstances.

Content Warning: The source material uses outdated terms for discussing people with disabilities and people without a permanent home. Such terms are replicated in this study guide only in direct quotes of the source material.

This study guide cites paragraph numbers for in-text citations.

It is a pleasant spring day in an unnamed city. Mr. Parsons has just come out of his hotel and is about to step onto the street. A “blind beggar” comes down the street; he is shabbily dressed and is “thumping his way before him” with a “traditional battered cane” (Paragraph 2). He has a black bag and seems like a “peddler.” Mr. Parsons hears the “clack-clack approach” (Paragraph 2) of the man and feels sorry for all people with blindness. The pleasant spring weather makes him feel glad to be alive, and he thinks about how he has risen in life, “alone, unaided, struggling beneath handicaps” (Paragraph 3). Mr. Parsons takes a step forward as the man passes before him. Sensing his presence, the man quickly turns to speak to Parsons.

Mr. Parsons says he is late for an appointment and asks whether the man wants anything from him. The man replies that he “ain’t no beggar” (Paragraph 7) and thrusts a cigarette lighter into Mr. Parsons’s hand. He claims it is the best lighter ever made and asks a dollar for it. Mr. Parsons is neatly dressed in a gray suit and carries a Malacca stick, or wooden cane. He feels slightly annoyed and embarrassed by the shabbily dressed man’s demand and politely says he does not smoke. The man persists and suggests that Parsons can gift it to somebody who smokes. He appeals to Mr. Parsons’s kindness and clings to his sleeve. With a sigh, Mr. Parsons pays him two half dollars, but he is curious about the man and hesitatingly asks, “Have you lost your sight entirely?” (Paragraph 10). The man quickly pockets the coins and emphatically says he has been blind for the past 14 years: “Westbury, sir. I was one of ’em” (Paragraph 11). Mr. Parsons recalls the Westbury chemical explosion, even though the “papers haven’t mentioned it for years” (Paragraph 12).

The man cuts Mr. Parsons off midsentence and bitterly says that he hasn’t forgotten anything: “They’ve all forgot about it” (Paragraph 13). He vividly describes the explosion: “The last thing I ever saw was C shop going up in one grand smudge, and gas pouring in all of the busted windows” (Paragraph 13). The man does not notice Mr. Parsons’s cough and continues with his story. As a deceptive person, Markwardt thinks Mr. Parsons may give him more money if he manages to capture his sympathy: “Just think about it, guv’nor” (Paragraph 15). The man rattles off figures, citing that hundreds of people were blinded, injured, and killed in the disaster. He rants that if had been injured in the war, the state would have taken care of him. However, because he was merely a factory worker, he was not insured. He blames the “capitalists […] making their dough” (Paragraph 15) for not ensuring the welfare of the workers.

Mr. Parsons interjects that he sells insurance. However, the man is too preoccupied with his story to pay attention. He goes on to describe in graphic detail the final moments of his escape from the factory. He was among the “last of all the folks rushing out” (Paragraph 17). He was crawling on the floor between the vats when a bigger guy suddenly grabbed his leg, hauled him back, and stepped over him to escape. The man says he tries to forgive the coworker in his heart for leaving him lying there “with all that poison gas pouring down on all sides and flame and stuff” (Paragraph 17). He finishes and dramatically pauses for Mr. Parsons’s expressions of sympathy.

The spring wind becomes “damp and quivering” (Paragraph 18). Mr. Parsons disagrees with the man’s story and calmly says it was “the other way around” (Paragraph 21). The man is shocked and loses his composure. Mr. Parsons reveals that he was also in the C shop that day, but that he was the one who got trampled, not the man. In a moment of understated drama, Parsons tells the man, “You were bigger than I was, Markwardt” (Paragraph 23).

Markwardt is rendered speechless. After a long pause, he hysterically accuses Mr. Parsons of cruelly taking advantage of his blindness to play a joke on him: “YOU’VE BEEN STANDING HERE LETTING ME SPOUT TO YOU, LAUGHING AT ME EVERY MINUTE! I’M BLIND” (Paragraph 24).

Markwardt further justifies himself, saying that Mr. Parsons got away unscathed, while he became blind. To this, Parsons quietly replies, “[D]on’t make such a row about it, Markwardt… So am I” (Paragraph 27).