A Man Who Had No Eyes

“A Man Who Had No Eyes” is an example of flash fiction, in which the author aims to achieve maximum impact using minimal description and exposition. Diction, syntax, and style inform the story’s impact. That is, the specific word choices the author selects and how those words are arranged affect how the reader experiences the broader thematic messages. Kantor uses simple, accessible language to build the narrative’s suspense and set up the ending’s ironic plot twist. In initially omitting the characters’ backstories and providing only selective descriptions of the characters and setting, Kantor effectively conceals Mr. Parsons’s blindness and develops the theme of Appearance Versus Reality.

The story is peppered with ellipses and hanging sentences, signified by triple periods and double hyphens, where the two characters either do not finish their sentences or are cut off midsentence by the other. This style lends urgency to the narrative, which focuses on dialogue rather than descriptive exposition, and the characters’ interjections form a narrative pattern.