Summary

Chapter 5 is an epistolary section, in which the Greek teacher writes to a former lover in Germany. In the letter, the teacher recalls repeatedly visiting an ophthalmologist; he reveals that he has a condition that causes progressive blindness. As a teenager, he watched the ophthalmologist’s deaf daughter looking at the sun through a photographic negative. They began a romantic relationship. In the present, the teacher notes that he “retain[s] partial sight. Perhaps in another year or so I will be totally blind” (32). He describes “drinking in the scene” (32) of Seoul, while he still can. In the letter, he imagines his former lover spending time with her daughter. He remembers an argument between them that involved the paradox of an omnipotent God in an evil world. During their relationship, the Greek teacher learned German Sign Language. The doctor’s daughter worked as...