Close reading analysis of "The Encirclement" from The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010

Dobozy

The Encirclement by Tamas Dobozy is a story in which a Professor, Teleki, makes several attempts to give speeches and lectures regarding a certain series of events all over North America. He is plagued however, by a certain blind individual, a Mr. Sandor, who follows him from lecture circuit to circuit. Sandor approaches him and hectors him. He is a particularly vindictive individual who accuses Professor Teleki of false presentations, pointing fingers at him and accusing Teleki of being blind, and offering up false information during his lecture series. What is interesting is that Sandor does not believe his accusations to be false at all. And, The Professor is deeply disturbed by the keep accuracy of some of the items Sandor points out about his lectures. He is uncertain as to how a blind man can report so many things, and how someone, anyone, can follow him so closely. Teleki's agents want to keep up the charade, because it is making money. The Professor finds these disturbances quite interruptive and distressing however, and is insistent they end sooner than later. The audience finds them entertaining however, to the point where they see the blind man as the good guy, and learn as much from him as they do from the actual published author. The Professor has gone as far as paying the heckler bribe money, but this has not stopped the man from attending his lecture circuit.

From the beginning of his work the author makes the point that the blind can see, and see very well, using an inner landscape in fact. This causes they reader to pause and question the actual definition of the term blindness, and other terms used within the piece of literature. This is a common tool used by authors to get the reader to question the terms and literary devices used by the author. It requires a closer reading of the material. An in depth study of pages 1 through 8 reveal that Sandor can indeed see, so well in fact that a blind man can follow Teleki throughout and all over North America, "from one stop on the lecture circuit to the next." Teleki even yells, "How the hell can a blind man, get around the country so quickly?" Sandar is described as absorbing the sunshine, tapping along through all kinds of landscape. Interesting an old analogy is that Jesus is the land, it might be curious to note if there is some sort of religious connotation there. As Jesus can make the blind see, and move mountains, as it seems this man Sandor can do. Although Teleki makes it out to be as if he has the powers of darkness to be able to do so. Although it is Teleki that goes about bribing the man, and once he commits THIS sin, the powers of vision change, and hush money brings a sort of blindness, one that turns Sandor's vision away but only temporarily. Sandor also speaks of the charity of people, the spontaneous charity that brings people to his aid at a moment's notice, to bring him to the exact place and time that he requires himself to be, and so it is that he finds himself at Teleki's doorstep. Because this is where Sandor belongs. Why? Sandor share's Teleki's blindness. Interestingly enough, it is a common denominator that everyone shares, blindness, but one that the author does not reveal until the final paragraph:

"Sandor's world, Teleki thought. His. And he wondered for a moment what it was like -- all those people working together -- having long ago learned to count on nobody and nothing, groping his way all along through the darkest of places." 8 pages into the story, this is also the position of the existentialist, or the person that believes there is no God. There is only the position of the blindness of the person that isolates themselves, believing there is no site if there is no God to bring them site. There is no one to lead someone and take them by the hand, to lead them down to the stage and take away their shame…people tend to judge others and criticize others rather than use others as a mirror from which they can reflect their own shadows. And yet, between the opening and this last paragraph, that is exactly what Teleki is asking that we do. He suggests that his shadow haunts him; that Sandor is some kind of shadow; he is blind, and yet so too is Teleki and everyone else. That which a person disagrees with is only his or her own shadow which she hates, rather than embraces, and makes peace with. This makes a person incapable of functioning, and getting from one place to the next. The only way to make peace with this is to actually embrace the shadow, the darkness, to find ones way around in it, not to merely get from one place to the next .One cannot make it by accusing the shadow, because this only result in anger and rebellion. Rather, one must simply stop the struggle, surrender, and release the desire to be right, the need to be right and to do things in one's one way. This is very much like giving up the ego, the will, the need and the desire to be right. In this way one can stop struggling and stumbling over the Self, so one can attain perfect freedom and freedom from suffering. This is kind of a Buddhist type of approach to writing.

Part II

In this work, Sandor, the blind wanderer makes his way around the States on the kindness and charity of strangers; he follows Professor Teleki, who travels with him sharing experiences during the war. However, when this Teleki talks, the blind man interrupts and accuses him of lies. Sandor's accusations become well-known, but eventually the man realizes that his accusations are nothing more than his own deceit, his own convictions and that he is morally blind and must confess his sins.