The Garden of Forking Paths - Essay Example

The narrator knows that his cover has been blown following the morning discovery that his friend and fellow spy Viktor Runeberg has been arrested or killed by Captain Richard Madden (Borges 165). Through intrigue, suspense and conflict, the author builds the course of the story with remarkable complexity that mirrors the forking paths suggested in the stories. Seemingly unrelated incidents seem to converge in strange ways that must work together to piece up the intricate puzzle, which courses through the story.

For instance it remains a mystery how strangers in the train could easily tell the destination of the narrator at the point in time when he alights from the rain. Strangely, the narrator does not seem to bother that total strangers can accurately guess where he is headed. Such loose and incomprehensible connections within the story serve the purpose of heightening the element of suspense as the reader keeps guessing whether or not the narrator will achieve his mission before his adversaries catch up with him.

Much of the meaning of this story is built within the element of characterization. The distinctive characters of the narrator, Captain Richard Madden, the renowned sinologist Dr. Stephen Albert, and the narrator’s mysterious ancestor Tsui Pen as exploited for the purposes of expanding on the themes, significance, and hidden meanings of the story. Captain Richard Madden, for instance, is portrayed as an all-knowing whose unique insights and character enables him to penetrate the intentions and designs of the narrator and his colleague Viktor Runeberg. Dr. Stephen Albert’s character fits in with his complex profession as a sinologist.

He helps the narrator connect with the implied meaning of Tsui Pen’s strange publications that had, until the morning of their encounter, remained completely mysterious and somewhat incomprehensible to the reader. Through him, both the reader and the narrator connect into the metaphorical essence of “The Garden of Forking Paths,” which in metaphoric terms capture the element time as a phenomenon that represents itself in ways that are more complex than the conventional linear understanding of it.

Time and reality, according to the substance of this text proceed through a multiplicity of perspectives. The author uses the phrase, “the invisible labyrinth of time,” (Borges 199) to expand on his philosophy of time as a phenomenon that will always confound the limited faculties of the human mind. Distant issues may relate in complex ways that work together to build meaning or challenge assumptions. The story moves back and forth hence tying together different historical times in a manner that condenses the various incidents and situations into one meaningful whole.

Through the actions of the characters and the plot of the story, it is possible for the reader to follow through some of the forces that have shaped human history. The story is anchored in a tumultuous epoch of the World War I and seeks to bring out the inner contradictions, tensions, and general unease that affected relationships between countries. From yet another perspective, it would seem that this story explores the special psychological states of mind that created rifts in Europe at the