At First Sight

At First Sight

Virgil had been blind for a long time. Through his condition, he had learnt to carry out some tasks with ease. He was a masseur and was very good at what he did. As depicted in the screenplay, he was able to perform the work by the use of his hands and engaging the client in a personal manner. He holds a conversation with Amy and even manages to walk at the bus stop without her noticing his condition. He skates well and when he boards the bus, he waits for the opportune moment to wave her goodbye. He makes images in his head based on what he reads. He concentrates on the details of what he reads and through this, he is able to make close to perfect images of reality. When they are taking a walk with Amy, he tells her of the rain before it starts. Amy does not realize that it is raining, she only feels the breeze. When they take shelter in an old building, he enables her to see the world through listening. He can tell how the room looks like by listening to the sound of the rain as it falls.

After surgery, he gets the chance to see, though not for long. Since he has been deprived of his sight for a long time, he has trouble coping with his new condition. People whose sight is restored after a long time usually behave as though they are still blind. They often have difficulty in analyzing and understanding the information that they see. They are not able to figure out the shape of objects and other people’s facial features (Weiner and Craighead 1549). They are used to touching things to know how they look like or feel. This is what happens to Virgil after the surgery. He asks for something to touch so that he can associate what he touches with what he sees. The touch sends a message to the brain about the shape of the object. The brain then communicates with the eyes and through this, he is able to perceive what the object or person looks like.

Cortical neurons respond to different inputs and contribute to perceptual errors and mislocalizations. The reorganization of the sensory system contributes to a person’s recovery of his abilities and general improvement (Salvi, 221). Virgil experiences some of the behaviors consistent with visual deprivation. He becomes disoriented and the light confuses him. Camera lights are especially disturbing to him. He is affected by the flashing light and cannot understand it. He cannot perceive the colors and the shadows that he sees. All things seem foreign o him including the shapes. He is not able to figure out distance either. He cannot recognize the stair case in the apartment where Amy lives after they come out of the hospital.

While living with Amy, he sometimes finds it hard to recognize her face. He also gets easily irritated by the things that he sees since he cannot understand them clearly. He is angry when he sees Amy congratulate her ex husband on his birthday. People often rely on their memory and the continued sensory input so that they can maintain images. People who have been deprived of their visual ability usually suffer from hallucinations (Cameron et al). Virgil easily forgets things and Amy has to keep on reminding him of the same things.

Virgil cannot make out the difference between some of the objects that he is holding when he looks at them. For instance when he is given an apple and a picture of an apple, he takes some time to note the difference. The perceptual errors that he makes are due to lack of information and the fact that he cannot relate the information that he is used to, to what he can now see. He has touched flowers and balloons before but they do not seem real to him when he goes to Amy’s apartment for the first time after the surgery.

In conclusion, Virgil’s latter perception of his visual world is plagued with many instances of distinguishing reality from imagination; a condition he was initially predisposed to through his long loss of optical perception. While blind, Virgil relied heavily on his other senses. The surgery and its success presented a second challenge of having to again accustom his eyes to serve as viable visual sensory receptors.

Works Cited:

At First Sight. Winkler Irwin. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 1999. Film

Cameron, Ewen, Levy Leonard, Ban Thomas and Rubenstein, Leonard. Sensory Deprivation: Effects upon the Functioning Human in Space Systems.

Salvi, Richard. Auditory System Plasticity and Regeneration. New York, NY: Thieme.1996

Weiner, Irving and Craighead, Edward. The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology, Volume 4. Boston, MA: John Wiley and Sons. 2010