Monday, October 28, 2013

Lost in the Labyrinth

            Although “The Garden of Forking Paths” undoubtedly spends time elaborating on the “labyrinth” of all the possibilities of the universe, and this aspect of the story is what Chatman focuses on in the beginning of the chapter as he relates it to postmodernism, I believe that, albeit its interesting nature, this is not the most pertinent idea that Borges wants the reader to focus on.  Instead, I believe that “the point” of the story has more to do with the irony of Yu Tsun’s justification of preserving his heritage by killing Dr. Stephen Albert, a man who literally and metaphorically preserved Yu Tsun’s heritage.
            Throughout the entire story it is obvious that Yu Tsun is aggravated by his current circumstance; he hates working as a spy for the German army, and even refers to his boss, The Chief, as a “sick and hateful man,” yet he feel he must perform his duties to the best of his ability “to prove to [The Chief] that a yellow man could save his armies.” This wish extends beyond the opinion of just the chief about Yu Tsun; it symbolizes Yu Tsun’s wish to make all Germans, perhaps all Europeans, respect people of Asian heritage. He is so desperate to prove himself and in turn the rest of his race that he kills an innocent man, reveals his cover, and sacrifices his own life by doing so.

            The man Yu Tsun kills happens to be Dr. Stephen Albert, a British man and an accomplished and passionate Sinologist who seemed to have dedicated the majority of his life to deciphering the story that Yu Tsun’s ancestor, Ts’ui Pên, left behind after his death.  Borges dedicates a great deal of the conversation between Albert and Tsun to just how much time Albert has devoted to restoring The Garden of Forking Paths, as he mentioned he went over “hundreds of manuscripts” and even “translated the whole work.” Albert’s explanation of the meaning of the book is complex, intricate, and seemingly entirely accurate, a huge accomplishment since the point of the novel was mentioned to have been a mystery for centuries, even to Yu Tsun’s family. Even after hearing all of this, however, Yu Tsun still chooses to pull the trigger and kill Albert.  Although he insists that it was an act solely committed to preserve his heritage, it is obvious that Yu Tsun murdered the exact kind of preservation of heritage and respect from other races that he was seeking, but is unable to realize it in the blind stubborn desperation of his mission. Perhaps through this tragic irony Borges is trying to illustrate how sometimes a difficult goal (in this story, the preservation of Yu Tsun’s heritage) does not necessarily have to be achieved in a difficult manner, with challenges and obstacles and adversity and in this case, death. Maybe in an alternate time in the universe, Yu Tsun chose to let Albert live and continue to promote and respect this Asian heritage.

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