The Day of the Triffids - By John Wyndham, Blog 3

 The setting of this story has a big influence on the events. It takes place in England, and although it is all over the place, there are things that remain the same no matter where the character's go. The book starts off with the main character Bill in a hospital on the morning that everyone has gone blind. At first Bill doesn't know that everyone is blind, and is very confused. There is something haunting about an empty hospital, when everyone goes blind. Some are confused and babbling, some are oblivious to the fact that they are blind, some kill themselves, but most are trying to find a way out, and are all grouped in the main lobby.

Next, we go into the main streets of England. People are walking around with makeshift sticks or else feeling their way along buildings. Some have already smashed through store fronts searching for food and other survival materials. Cars are parked on the streets, and the scariest thing is that it is quiet. For a city that during the daytime and even night time always has noise, and cars and is generally really busy, something feels very unnerving when everything is silent except for the tapping of sticks, and the occasional cry from someone.

From here, we meet Josella, and her and Bill find a flat that was abandoned. While in the hallway however, they encounter a blind couple who kill themselves so that they don't have to suffer. It is very scary seeing people helpless and killing themselves so that they don't have to live blind.

At first all the towns seem empty, and yet you will find blind people trying to make their way along streets and survive. Then the Triffids make their way towards the city's and towns, and the blind populations get smaller and smaller. If not killed by the Triffids, most people die of some sort of disease that Bill believes has also come from the comets that made everyone blind in the first place.

The devastation of Earth is what makes the humans have to learn to survive in new ways, and it is the basis of this story. If the world had not been devastated, and there weren't Triffids, or all the other problems that happened, there would have been no story at all. Ultimately it makes one think of how we would try to survive if a disaster like this happened. Would you be able to make it?

The Day of the Triffids - By John Wyndham, Blog 2

Although Bill is the main character of this book, he is not the only one who undergoes a major change. The woman that he saves from the blind man does too. Her name is Josella Playton. She is also one of the fortunate ones who is sighted. She didn't see the meteor shower because she was sick and stayed in bed the whole day before with all the curtains drawn. It turns out that she slept through the whole thing, and good thing too, because it brings some dynamic back to the story.

In Josella's life before devastation hit Earth, she wrote a book that was very frivolous. It was called, "Sex is my Adventure". She had done it just because she needed money, but it became very famous. She sees the devastation as a way to get away from the view everyone has of her. It is a way for her to start over again. She is very happy she meets Bill, because in a world full of blind, it is nice to have someone who is like you, and it would be very lonely otherwise. It is a good thing they find each other, because Josella looks for her dad after being rescued, and it turns out the Triffids have killed everyone in her house including her father. Josella and Bill both have no family, and are left with only each other. They decide to stick together, and while driving around, find the university group.

The night after joining, they get captured and get split up after a fake fire. They are put in charge of groups of blind people, but don't have to take care of them for long, because everyone starts dying from some sort of illness. Josella finds her way to her aunt's cottage, while Bill goes in the other direction to try to find her. At the cottage, she finds her aunt and uncle, and their friend, blind and surrounded by Triffids. She manages to get in the house, equipped with a flame thrower that kills the Triffids. Bill eventually finds his way there.

By this time, Bill and Josella are basically in love, and so about a year later they have a son. Josella now becomes a housewife, something everyone from her past life would never have thought possible. They are very happy together, but must do everything on their own. Josella's role as a farmers wife includes making the food, and repairing clothes, and taking care of the kids. All of these are things she probably would never have seen for herself, or at least nowhere in the near future. She changes the way she lived a lot in order to survive, but she becomes happier, and she decides that she doesn't regret the way things turned out, and in fact is pretty happy with the way they did.