Where does Blindness take place.. and some filler

For some reason that I cannot explain, I have always thought that Blindness takes place somewhere in the southern cone of South America. However there is little textual evidence to suggest this, or any at all for that matter. But something about the feel of the world, a sort of feeling of being in a developed country, but torwards the lower end of one in wealth, with a sort of uncaring bureaucracy, (which is not something that I really associate with the Southern Cone Augustin Pinochet notwithstanding) It could be because of the influence of The Country of the Blind,  set in the Andes, another book written about in another blog post, hugely influential for me, as far as short stories go. So it is possible that I now just associate South America with the blind, with blindness. I decided in the end that nothing could be done to find where it takes place, and it does not matter, it could have happened in any industrialized country, it could have happened anywhere, when I noticed a strange turn of phrase, the use of the word "tu."  The word tu is used in both Spanish and Portuguese, though in the context: "You simply must call me "tu," Oh no I couldn't, I simply could not do that. " As far as I can tell the Spanish tu has little meaning beyond the word for you, the Portuguese tu, is a formal you similar to the Sie form in german, where it is only used to people that are not well known as a mark of politeness. The context suggests a Portuguese speaking language country, though seeing as the author was Portuguese that proves nothing, and in the end, the location does not matter so much as the ideas of it.

Cliches

“The cold dawn air cooled his face. How well one breathes out here, he thought to himself. He had the impression that his leg was less painful, but this did not suprise him, some-time before, and more than once, the same thing had happened. He was now outside the main door, he would soon be at the steps, That is going to be the most awkward bit, he thought. “(pg 73)

To this section, I will preface that it is not that I faulted the book for containing cliches, or a deus ex machina ending. I think that even if they were cliches, or a deus ex machina ending, the novel used these tropes well, and the overall work was not damaged by them, that being said however there was an instance where the cliche was very obvious, and greatly annoyed me, the death of the Thief. It makes liberal use of the "retirony" trope, in which the character is making plans for his future without knowing that he will never live through them. It uses the usual trope of "everything is so beautiful.. it does not hurt anymore." With the thief reflecting on a pleasant thing, then noting how his limbs do not hurt anymore, then mentioning how much he hopes he will get help, right after the end of the quote, he was marked for death, having fulfilled every trope of the sympathetic character  death that i have heard. At the very least it did not have the "sudden sharp pain" part of the sympathetic character death  Point of view cliche box. All this being said, I still liked the scene, I just thought it was to many cliches in one paragraph.