Analysis of Jorge Luis Borges’ Style of Writing

Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges is best known for his use of extensive diction and magical realism in his short stories. He began writing magical realism after suffering a head wound in 1938. In his stories he includes events from his life, making them somewhat autobiographical and sometimes the characters in the story are actually Borges himself. Readers can recognize this based on the events that occur in the story compared to events that occurred in Borges’ life. Borges often uses the same symbols and metaphors, such as labyrinths and time, to get his ideas across to readers. These literary devices can be identified in all of his short stories.

Magical realism stories are stories that seem realistic but at some point, usually in the end, consist of a drastic change. With Borges’ stories, this change is usually a plot twist that oftentimes leaves readers shocked or even confused. His complex diction, use of metaphors and symbols, and plot twists can leave readers having to re-read his stories for a better understanding. Borges uses mirrors as a metaphor in many of his works to describe his idea of infinity. One example of this is in the story “The Library of Babel” where in each hexagonal-shaped room there is a mirror. When a character looks into a mirror, they see replicas of their surroundings. The surroundings consist of, “… five bookshelves; each bookshelf holds thirty-two books identical in format; each book contains four hundred ten pages; each page, forty lines; each line, approximately eighty black letters. There are also letters on the front cover of each book”. The fact that all of the books and rooms are identical to each other and the mirrors create more of the surroundings, makes the setting seem infinite to not only the characters but the readers.

Although, mirrors are not always used for infinity. In “Tlön, Uqar, Orbis Tertius,” Hronir is used in the fictional place of Tlön to create infinity. The narrator in the story states, “Two persons look for a pencil; the first finds it and says nothing; the second finds a second pencil, no less real, but closer to his expectations. These secondary objects are called hronir”. Hronir are objects that can replicate themselves if they were to be lost or destroyed. If the already replicated object were to be lost or destroyed, it can also replicate itself, creating an infinite cycle of replication. Labyrinths are also widely used in Borges’ stories. Readers can find this symbol again in “The Library of Babel.” The many rooms and stories of books in the library create the labyrinth. At the same time, readers can perceive them as different or infinite universes. The most acknowledged story involving labyrinths is “The Garden of Forking Paths.” The main character in this story is taken to a labyrinth called “The Garden of Forking Paths” and is taught about its creator and the meaning behind it. Borges uses this labyrinth concept as a way to explain that in each universe there are multiple/different endings; infinite endings as they relate to time. The character Stephen Albert describes the labyrinth by saying, “A labyrinth of symbols,” he corrected. “An invisible labyrinth of time”. Albert continues with: “The Garden of Forking Paths is an incomplete, but not false, image of the universe as Ts’ui Pên conceived it. In contrast to Newton and Schopenhauer, your ancestor did not believe in a uniform, absolute time. He believed in an infinite series of times, in a growing, dizzying net of divergent, convergent and parallel times”. Through this piece of evidence, it is clear that these are also the beliefs of Borges himself. In the story “Death and the Compass” the antagonist, Scharlach, commits three murders. In the end of the story, it is revealed that Scharlach committed those murders in order to lure the detective to him and kill him.

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To ensure the plan, the murders are done at specific locations which, when looking on a map, create a labyrinth. When he meets with the detective he tells him, “In your labyrinth there are three lines too many… I know of a Greek labyrinth which is a single straight line” and ‘The next time I kill you,’ said Scharlach, ‘I promise you the labyrinth made of the single straight line which is invisible and everlasting.’ In the last part Scharlach mentions that the next labyrinth will be infinite.

All of these short stories correspond to the idea of infinity but each through a different approach, making them fun and interesting to read for many people. What readers can understand from Borges’ message in these stories is that there are infinite endings in different universes, all with different times. Time is a metaphor used most often in Borges’ pieces of writing. Another major example of this is in the short story “The Other.” Readers can identify the magical realism in the story as well as time used as a metaphor. In this story, an older version of Borges meets with a younger version. The younger Borges does not believe he is meeting with an older version of himself. The older Borges is able to get the younger one to believe that their meeting is a real event by stating a line of poetry from French writer, Victor Hugo, about an infinite universe. The line states, “L’hydre-univers tordant son corps écaillé d’astre.” which translates to “The hydra-universe twisting his scaly body of stars.” in English. Not only is time used but the ideas of infinity and universes are seen once again. Their meeting can also be interpreted as a symbol of infinity because in the last line of the story, the older Borges concludes with: “The other man dreamed me, but did not dream me rigorously – he dreamed.” This explains that the younger Borges dreamed the encounter with the older one but for the older Borges, the encounter was real. Since the younger Borges dreamed it, he will not remember the encounter when he is older, just like the older Borges did not recall meeting himself, although he knew it was real.

This event will happen again when the younger Borges becomes older and the cycle will continue. A symbol not so common for Borges appears in his short story “The South.” The main character, Dahlmann, works at a library and suffers a head wound, automatically making this story somewhat autobiographical of Borges’ life. In a cafe near the train station, Dahlmann realizes, “… there was an enormous cat which allowed itself to be caressed as if it were a disdainful divinity”. The narrator goes on to describe: “… and thought, as he smoothed the cat’s black coat, that this contact was an illusion and that the two beings, man and cat, were as good as separated by a glass, for man lives in time, in succession, while the magical animal lives in the present, in the eternity of the instant.” Readers might not realize this right away but the cat is actually the symbol of infinite time in this short story. According to the website spritanimal.info, cats are symbols for many different things. However, cat symbolism, mostly seen in the Ancient Egyptian culture, can represent wisdom, grace, but also infinity. The common saying “cats have nine lives” shows that it is well known throughout the world that these animals are perceived and associated with infinity.

Borges’ stories are enjoyed by people around the world and are taught in many schools. Throughout all of Borges’ short stories, a lot of the same symbols and metaphors can be seen. Many of them coincide with each other, like labyrinths, infinity, and time, to create a bigger concept/message in which Borges attempts to convey.