The Garden of Forking Paths

            In the short story “The Garden of Forking Paths,” by Jorge Luis Borges, the reader is introduced to a Chinese man turned German Spy during WWI. He has intercepted information regarding the “name of the exact site of the new British artillery park on the Ancre” (315). The chosen city’s name was Albert, and so Yu Tsun devised the plan to kill someone with the last name of Albert in order for it the name to appear in the English papers for the Germans to see. He chose Dr. Stephan Albert who lived in a town called Ashgrove.

            When Tsun got off the train, he was unsure of whether or not he had made it to the Ashgrove station. He asked the children on the train station platform if this was the correct station and they said yes. What was strange was the question the children asked after the confirmation of the correct station: “Are you going to Dr. Stephen Albert’s house?” (317).  The children had not been told of Tsun’s business in Ashgrove, however they knew that he was looking for Dr. Albert. On the realistic level, one can infer that the children knew this because Ashgrove is one of those towns where everyone knows everyone. When Tsun arrived at the Ashgrove station, “the train crept along gently, amid ash trees. It slowed down and stopped almost in the middle of a field. No one called the name of the station” (316). It is typical of a train station of a large city to be surrounded by chaotic life with stores, buildings, and numerous amounts of people. The description of the Ashgrove station leads the reader to believe that it is a small town in the middle of nowhere. Since it is so small, one can rely on the stereotypical interpretation of small towns and assume that everyone knows everyone’s business as well, including the fact that Dr. Stephen Albert was a Sinologist. Since Tsun is a Chinese man and Albert studied the ins and outs of Chinese culture, the children associated the two together and deduce that he was in town to see the doctor. 

           When examined on a symbolic or fantastic level, the children could have known that Yu Tsun was in Ashgrove to see Dr. Stephen Albert in regard to the “maze” of the story’s events. Tsun’s ancestor Ts’ui Pen wrote The Garden of Forking Paths, which is described by Dr. Albert as ultimate maze. The story itself identifies every avenue that a story can go down. In a symbolic or fantastic take on their knowledge of him being here, it is possible that Dr. Albert was alerted to Tsun’s arrival by Captain Madden, who was in pursuit of Tsun. It is also possible that Dr. Stephen Albert knew that Tsun was coming and then told the children on the platform of his arrival. The story itself contains the possibility of having numerous outcomes and avenues that the story can turn down, thus resulting in multiple stories with multiple events that differ from what happens in the other story, much like Tsun’s ancestor’s story. It could be that Tsun’s life is much like the maze that his ancestor wrote so many years ago and that there are outcomes that he didn’t even know were possible.