The Garden of Forking Paths Essay
“The Garden of Forking Paths”, written by Argentinian writer Jorgue Luis Borges is more than a mystery. One very unique feature of Bourges’s work is the fact that it cannot be clubbed into one particular genre because the narrative and the plot of the stories he authors transcend beyond genres. Borges has worked around philosophical literature as well as with fantasy and is known as a pioneer in the magic realist genre. This story was first ever published in the year 1941 and was also declared a runner up in the Ellery Queen mystery fiction prize in the year 1948.
Summary
The Story is narrated by a Chinese spy who is named Yu Tsun, the tone of his narration makes it sound like a confession. Confession and observations, he made in his lifetime and comes at the very end of his life just as he waits the execution for spying for the Germans when the world was witnessing the First World War. He realizes about his impending doom when he gets to know that the spy ring, he was associated with was infiltrated by the army and that he was under surveillance. And amidst all this he is stuck, unable to communicate with the German or send them necessary information due to lack of technological advancements. Eventually he escapes and on his journey toward home he stumbles upon a man called Richard Madden and without knowing him, he even travels to a home with him. And gets to know the man’s name from a phone book and found the name similar to the very important information that he found out on his job. On his journey to the home he retrospect’s into the kind of life his grandfather led. His grandfather willing cut himself off a social life in order to dwell in a mood that would help him in writing a novel and in constructing a labyrinth which he did. When they reached the destination, which was the home of Chinese scholar Stephen Albert, he was surprised to find out that he was expecting and preparing for Yu’s arrival. Followed by his Albert takes the opportunity for taking Yu outside the house known as the “garden of forking paths”.
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After a while when both of them go inside the house, Albert takes the opportunity to thank him around his grandfather’s contribution in the Chinese culture which he always found extraordinary and appealing. He even tells Yu that his grandfather Ts’ui Pen, unfortunately could not finish the novel he began but left behind a draft which contained a number of alternative plotlines and a lot of ideas that could be incorporated. Albert could only read the draft because it was left posterity and then was published. T’sui’Pen even left a note for several possible futures and referred the novel as the “garden of forking paths”. Get essay help.
This helped Albert to realize that this could be a clue of the labyrinth that he envisioned to construct and that the novel and the labyrinth were actually the same and was meant to serve the same purpose. Thus, even though the novel apparently looked like a draft with notes running from page to page, corrections and several plot changes, it was a well thought out plan. He deviated from the normative storytelling where the protagonist only choses one path and rejects the rest. With regards to the novel and his idea of the labyrinth he wanted the protagonist to have multiple options and gave him the opportunity to explore the world and the possibilities as he wanted. Hence it was a special novel where all the possible course of action could occur. This is the best solution for students thinking “who can write my essay for me?”
Immediately after this Yu realized that the Richard Madden was the man who was on trial, he realizes that his time was about to end. And thus, he shoots and kills Albert and he did so to communicate the information he collected which was the information about the artillery park in France called Albert. The involvement of Yu in the murder of Albert would thus help them understand the name of the town in France. And it happens so because the German’s understood his messages and bombs the town which Yu gets to know and confirms in his novel as well.
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Analysis
Borges specialty as an author is the fact that he was well versed with the work of many authors from diverse background and one specific author who he was immensely influenced by was Edgar Allan Poe, followed by him it was GK Chesterton. Thus, from such influences emerged “The Garden of Forking Paths” which is a mystery as well as a spy story. Another unique feature of the story is the fact that it also had references of the Chaos theory and quantum mechanics. A very striking feature of the book is how prognostic it is, the novel with several plotlines is also adopted in several computer games in the modern times. His rejects a linear narrative in the plot just like the lives of human beings which does not have a linear projection. You should know about narrative writing.
Apart from this the concept of a labyrinth occurs quite a few times in many of his works. This is because in a mystery plotline the concept of a labyrinth is a very appropriate metaphor. Ro develop a mystery story and make it mysterious the author cannot rely upon one narrative and thus there are multiple openings which is makes this work can exemplary piece as well. Apart from this it is important to look at one aspect the literal and metaphorical meaning of “the garden of forking paths” the metaphorical and the figurative one is obviously Yu’s grandfather’s novel, whereas Alberts’s garden is the literal one. A question that recurs through is to delve into if the novel itself is a garden of forking path and the author both the grandfather and Borges could mean by that. Interestingly it leads the readers to have multiple assumptions which is the realm that Borges wanted to explore and achieved through this work.
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List Of Few Topics On The Garden of Forking Paths Essay
- The concept of time in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The theme of determinism vs. free will in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The representation of the universe in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The use of the labyrinth as a metaphor in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The role of language in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The relationship between memory and reality in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The representation of the self in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The role of the narrator in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The use of the Chinese finger trap in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The concept of the multiverse in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The theme of identity in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The use of the novel as a form of metafiction in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The role of the book within the novel in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The representation of war in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The theme of nationalism identity in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The use of the book as a tool of espionage in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The relationship between father and son in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The representation of the East vs. the West in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The theme of science and technology in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
- The use of dream sequences in "The Garden of Forking Paths"
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