Jorge Luis Borges: "Emma Zunz," "The Gospel According to Mark," "The Garden of Forking Paths"

Throughout the three narratives Borges delves into the concept of time; the subjectivity of it, which therefore renders it with a cyclic nature. He, also, speaks about the nature of sacrifice. In fact, throughout the three novels we get to see the protagonist kill or killed in some sacrificial manner. Finally, Borges, in keeping it “magically real,” hearkens back to the power of the mind. Primarily, the role that it plays in our ability to perceive and interpret reality.

            Beginning with the idea of time, I’ll start talking about the “Garden of Forking Paths.” In the whole story, which is told in first person, we are—as readers—bestowed into the inner reaches of the protagonist’s mind. His insecurities and doubts we are privy to. It is quickly revealed that he is a “cowardly man” who engaged in the business of espionage not for the love of Germany, but for the need to vindicate “the people of [his] race, that there was no need to fear “the enumerable ancestors who merged within [him]. Furthermore, it becomes apparent that he has to get intelligence to the Nazis, and meanwhile he’s being pursued by another spy who wants to kill him. Because he is an anxious and fearful man who is “pressed for time,” he shifts through time by sifting through various decisions and actions right away. Instantaneously, he dictates in his mind the path that he will take to reach his goal, but just as soon as he resolves to execute a plan by following that path, he swiftly changes his mind and branches from that path, altering his course and therefore altering his fate.

 In the end, Borges says “the author of an atrocious undertaking out to imagine that he has already accomplished it, out to impose upon himself a future as irrevocable as the past” For to him time is “intimate and infinite” It is a sinuous spreading labyrinth that would encompass the past and the future and in some way involve the stars.” The big idea here is that life is not linear nor is one’s destiny. As we see with our protagonist, what he did or failed to do in the past resulted in the present for him and what he does or fails to do renders his future accordingly. What’s more, with every mood, or whim, or calculation that bears on our thoughts as make decision, we create for a different ending for ourselves.

Sacrifice plays a great role in the “Gospel According to Mark.” Here, Borges makes a pretty bold statement. He mirrors his narrator, Baltasar Espinosa, after Jesus Christ in every sense. He is thirty three, he is well spoken, intelligent, but without “direction.” This is a blow to the heart mainstream Christian belief because the actions of Christ are thought to be all pre-destined. He came to act in a story that was already written about him, long ago from the prophets. Borges recreates Christ with a few caveats. That is, he is more practical than religious, he is more complacent than willful, and that he did good acts not out of a fondness for humanity but because he was compelled by his “acquiescent nature.” As the story proceeds, Espinosa goes and lives among the rural Gutres (they represent the poor and, also, his apostles), he has dinner with them and later they crucify him. Again, this just corroborates that Espinosa is Christ. What Borges wants to communicate, however, is that the man who many think of as purely pious and devoted singularly one cause, is, in fact, more reasonable and practical. He is “normal” like the rest of us. Indeed, he was full of opinions, but he was not perfect in every way that’s why some of his actions were “questionable.” Ultimately, he is sacrificed because people misunderstand and misconstrue his ways.

Finally, with regards to perception, we can look at “Emma Zunz.” Zunz is fascinating because she preps herself up in order to relive a painful experience so that she can free herself to “become the person she would be.” She had suffered humiliation for her father being wrongfully indicted for the crime of embezzlement; then, again for his subsequent suicide. She vows revenge by going out to kill her father’s old friend who was responsible for her suffering. However, to go about it, she has to make herself feel the pain. She was already suffering from it, but she has to bring out the pain to its quintessence so that she can compel herself inflict it upon someone else. Now she is a virgin, but for the sake of duty, she goes out and sleeps with a hideous man. Herein lies Borges brilliance: a virgin’s greatest pride and fear is the protection and loss of her maidenhead. So, as an audience, to witness such a momentous and self-effacing and self-sacrificing act causes us to cringe and say “Oh, I feel your pain now. You really got screwed when he did this to your father.” Even more amazing, Zunz wills herself to imagine and live in the moment again. Her mind recreates an old reality and merges it with her new one, so that she does “become the person she would be.”