An Analysis Of The Writings of Jorge Luis Borges

Tlon Uqbar Orbis and Tertius

The author owes the discovery of Uqbar to the conjunction of a mirror and an encyclopedia. The book and the mirror become symbols of a mystical labyrinth. From there, there is a dialogue with Herbert Ashe, a man of mystery and bewitchment, Borges in the first person traces the inventor of Tlon to the philosopher Leibniz. From there Borges traces the idealism of the metaphysical world. In the language of Tlon, there are strange to say no nouns but only verbs. For example, moon is a verb: moonate. Objects are composed of two terms, one the visual and the other auditory. For example, the color of the rising sun, the cry of a far-away bird. An interesting thought is that the future has no reality but of the present hope. Language is a game of paradoxes. Nouns have a metaphoric value.

The Garden of Forking Paths

The Garden of Forking paths is a metaphoric dualism of symbols. The story is told in the first-person narrative. The captain Richard Madden goes to the house of Dr. Stephen Albert. They discuss about labyrinths and the garden of forking paths. The narrator shoots Albert and Madden arrests the narrator. The narrator was able to communicate to the Germans about the bombing of a place in England.

The Lottery in Babylon

The Lottery in Babylon is a symbolic secret of chance to a winning or losing. The lotteries failed as they were not directed to man’s faculties but to hope.
Pierre Menard the Author of Quixote
The author Borges writes about an imaginary Don Quixote which does not exist. Quixote is a play of language of words. In it he makes History the mother of truths.

The Circular Ruins

In the circular ruins, a man is prone to having dreams and visions. These dreams pertain to esoteric wisdom. The man comes to a period of enlightenment. The universe proposes a grandiose plan for the man to enact. Dreams are full of wit and irony showing a remonstrance of Socratic humor.

The Library of Babel

In the Library of Babel, the narrator compares the Universe to that of a library. The library is unending. Man is an imperfect librarian. The limitations of the alphabet do not deter the language in creating infinity.

Funes the Memorious

The author narrates the strange behavior of a man. He narrates the story of a man who had been maimed tragically by an untamed horse. Funes possess a phenomenal memory.

The Shape of the Sword

There is a man who has a scar on his face and he tells how his face was pierced with a sword. There is a hint of revolution taking place in Ireland.

The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero

In the theme of the traitor and the hero, there is the protagonist, Kilpatrick who is paradoxically an enemy and hero.

Death and the Compass

There occurs a series of puzzling murders which traced to Historical and Literary reasons.

The Secret Miracle

A person is condemned to the gallows by the Gestapo. In prison, he is undergoing the delirium of death. The man, the protagonist has a literary lineage. There is a brilliant narrative of describing the agonies of death.

Three Versions of Judas

In it, the first argument that the author lays down is that all the accusations against Judas are preposterous and false. Is there a need to betray Christ who is a popular figure? He then goes on to explain the Platonic idea of forms, that is what ever in the real world has an ideal form in the spiritual world.

The Sect of the Phoenix

The sect of the Phoenix is a mystical sect which embraces the Philosophy of Esotericism. The doctrines of the sect are akin to the bird phoenix which renews itself from the flames.

The Immortal

This is a fable in search for immortality. Immortality is examined as a search for meaning in life. There is a conversation about God who is an excavator of meaning.

The Theologians

In it, there is an enigmatic description of the wheel, symbol and the serpent juxtaposed with an aura of mysticism. The author ponders on the meaning of time. Again, he goes on to say the vilest of all sinners can be cleansed by the blood of Jesus.

The Story of the Warrior and the Captive

This is a story of a warrior who paradoxically becomes the captive.

Emma Zunz

The story begins with Emma’s father committing suicide. Her father is wrongly accused of cash embezzlement. Emma executes her father’s boss Lowenthal.

The House of Asterion

The house of Asterion is a mysterious mythical place. There is a mystical connotation of the number 14.

Deutsch’s Requiem

This a legend of a man who faces death for being a murderer. He is a man who is inspired by philosophers and dramatists. The birth and death of a man has been preordained.

Averroes Search

Averroes is a mystical man whose scholarly interests lie in books and literature. In it, there is an exposition there is no other God than Allah. He goes on to say that writing is an art.

Zahir

The Zahir is made up of many things like a coin, a tiger, a blind man from a mosque, an astrolabe, and a compass. Then in the Zahir, the writer speaks of a maiden Clementia. Her death moved the author into tears. The coin, Zahir symbolized man’s freewill. Everything, even the mind and imagination is a Zahir.

The Waiting
A man alights from a cab. This man is named Villari. For Villari, the coincidence of art and reality were alien to him. He was a man filled with weariness. Villari reads Dante’s Divine Comedy and he believes that hell does not exist.

God’s Script

There is a person in captivity in a cell. In the cell, the man is contemplating the order of the stone carved serpents. He is wondering about the mysterious script of God. The symbol is a magical element of thought. Ecstasy does not repeat itself in symbols. God for him as a concept has been a blazing light, a sword in the circles of a rose, and also a rose.

The Argentinian Writer and Tradition

Argentinian tradition exists in gauchesque poetry. The classic poem by Martin Fierro is akin to Homeric Poems. Poems are composed on themes of love, solitude, nature and romance. Poetry also speaks of abstract themes like time, space and the sea. Borges asks the question whether literature should address national themes. Argentinian history wants to free itself from Spanish influences.

The Wall and the Books

In it, the author mentions the emperor of China who built the great wall of China and ordered the burning of books.

The Fearful Sphere of Pascal

Universal history is the history of handful metaphors. The sphere is the most uniform and perfect thing in existence. Divinity in its perfection is represented as a sphere. God is an intelligent sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.

Partial Magic in Quixote

Quixote is a work of realism. The novel served the purpose of parody of the elegant traditions of knighthood. Every novel is an ideal plane inserted into the realm of reality.

Valery as a Symbol

Valery is a symbol of infinite dexterities. Valery personifies the labyrinths of the mind. Valery is a symbol of Europe in delicate twilight. Valery at his death leaves us with the symbol of man who is very sensitive.