“Essay on blindness”: the feeling of denial and the cataclysm of the pandemic

Abstract

The purpose of the article is, based on the facts portrayed in Ensaio sobre a cegueira, by José Saramago, to reflect on human behavior in the face of measures to face the public health emergency resulting from the coronavirus outbreak, at the end of 2019. Saramago's description of the (re)discoveries of the human essence, while they are protected in quarantine, pursued by fear, insecurity and doubts in the face of a new, invisible and unknown "enemy", the article proposes to critically analyze the pandemic moment in the Brazil. Through the provisions of Law 13,979, of February 6, 2020, used as a theoretical framework, the research outlines an overview of the public policies adopted in the country to contain Covid-19. In the second section, the article seeks to make an analogy with the behavior of the characters in the book by the Portuguese poet and Brazilians, mentioning legal, ethical, love, solidarity, political, economic and social issues, highlighting the aspects of the relationship between State, law and society. With jusliterary studies, the bibliographic research is based on a critical-reflective approach on the subject, using literature to embody the law.