Jorge Luis Borges' The Garden of Forking Paths is an enigmatic yet fascinating story about the journey through the decisions of a Chinese man named Yu Tsun spying for the Germans. In sending a secret message to the Germans while running from a man named Richard Madden, Yu Tsun picks a random name from a phone book to relay the information to a stranger. Upon arriving at the home of Stephen Albert, an intellectual, specifically and coincidentally knowing all there is about Chinese philosophy, he was expecting Yu Tsun. Upon meeting up with each other it seemed to Yu Tsun that Albert was expecting him. After introducing themselves, they strolled around the garden of forking paths outside the home. The passage, "The Garden of Forking Paths is a picture, incomplete yet not false" (100) which, depicts the unknown of the garden and its correlation to free will in making decisions once in that maze. This illustration is integral to Borges' argument in bringing together both the tangible and intangible labyrinth to better understand the incomprehensible.
Ts'ui Pên, Yu Tsun's grandfather, "believed in an infinite series of times, in a dizzily growing, ever spreading network of diverging, converging and parallel lines" (100). The story contains both a figurative and literal garden in which Albert and Yu Tsun are strolling in, one from Ts'ui Pên's novel with his garden of time and the other being Stephen Albert's physical one. They both similarly contain many boundaries that prevent individuals from going over them and instead restrain them from going where they desire to, therefore taking that power away from them. An allegorical one, like from the novel, allows the reader to be imaginative in what it would look like, what material it would be made out of, and its size. This mental freedom allows for more leeway into the metaverse and emits a sense of control within a person.
On the other hand, in the case of an already fabricated maze, every area explored is foreign, allowing one to discover a new quality about a particular space that they didn't expect to exist. Only some paths will be recognizable, even if one traces back their steps. It leaves the reader thinking about what would constitute a labyrinth's makings and characteristics, thereby stripping them of free will. It is also about how, locational-wise, that one enters a specific labyrinth or where they are put in it.
How does one figure out which path to take in their life? Through trial and error, they may find a solution but fail once or more than once, ending with their demise in trying to find a way out or get to a goal. Stephen Albert's intricate maze garden portrays the many outlets one can choose at the moment at the location and in making both small and big decisions outside this space. When one enters the garden, they are given various choices and have that free will to go a certain way, but those choices are realized once they are made, which in turn concretely prevents one from going down a different path, which limits them to only one decision. This helps the reader to understand what time is supposed to be like for Borges in this sense of how certain paths one chooses to go down impact their life as a whole about the constraints of time. Additionally, there could be no end to the "ever spreading network" (100) of forking paths, leaving the reader pondering and more elusive to successfully tracking down the right path. Thus, Borges argues that there is no correct mode of living life or direction one should follow to fulfill their wishes.
Nevertheless, he incorporates the intangible labyrinth as a metaphor for the infinite, constantly changing narratives in this symbol of transcendental time and the notion of openness in freedom illuminated by this maze. "This web of time– the strands of which approach one another, bifurcate, intersect or ignore each other through the centuries– embraces every possibility" (100). He recognizes that we experience this metaphor in one's everyday life and that through living, one compromises, disagrees, and creates different options based on one's perception of their life. This "web of time" will constantly and forever be interconnected, coinciding with a spider's web, with each strand essential to what shapes an individual through their decisions. This not only shapes a person but could also significantly affect others around them negatively and positively. In the story, Yu Tsun could've entered the house from a different door, therefore not being able to walk through the garden, leading him to ponder other thoughts leading to further actions. This coincides with the determinism in one's everyday life, whether it be the simple actions of choosing who we sit next to or which door to enter through a grocery store. Regardless, every choice leads to an alternate, already set future, yet he also suggests that time is progressive and open. Since time "embraces every possibility" (100), these different realities occurring simultaneously are being continuously created without limits, therefore effusing a sense of liberty in an individual.
Borges allows the end of the story to be open, just like his interpretation of the future. This let's the reader come up with their own conclusion, which sheds light on how free will is portrayed as a distinct way to perform certain actions with autonomy, even with the knowledge of possibly being constrained by boundaries of time whilst going through the maze. By attributing the special symbol, metaphor, and image of a labyrinth all in one, Borges facilitates the reader's comprehension of the intricacies of the nature in time and its infinite paths.
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Work Cited
Borges, Jorge L. “The Garden of Forking Paths” Ficciones, Edited and with an introduction by Anthony Kerrigan. Grove Press, Incorporated, 1962.
