The Garden Of Forking Path

Jorge Luis Borges presents various concepts of time, and how these concepts relate to our future, in his short story essay of "The Garden of Forking Paths". As we all know Borges' favorite writing pretended to detective stories. Such is the case of this story, "The Garden of Forking Path" where we find violence, a wonderful metaphysical riddle and contains no sentimentalism what so ever. The story's form of narration is in the first person. Is about a letter presumed to be written by Dr. Yu T'sun . He is Chinese spy for the Germans in the English territory, during the First World War. Tsun's duty is to communicate to Berlin about a village in which the British is harboring some fourteen hundred artillery pieces. At the beginning of the story, Dr. Yu T'sun recounting the events that lead to his arrest. He then discovers that his partner had been killed by Captain Richard Madden, who is a security agent for the British. Yu T'sun must find a way to communicate the news of this artillery to the German king without being noticed. He decides to kill a man called Stephen Albert, whom his name is the same as the city's name; thinking that the news of his mysterious murder will get to the German king.

Borges presents two different concepts of time. He uses two individual characters who present two different views concerning time. The first aspect of time is found through the main character, Dr. Yu Tsun, who sees time as a single non-repeating destination. A second way of time is introduced when Dr. Tsui Pen's novel is first introduced in the story. Dr. Tsui Pen's novel describes time as a realm with vast possibilities. Tsui Pen believes that every decision is a center of forking paths. Even through time may be forking path of many possibilities; Borges seems to suggest that the humanity believes that there is only one path to follow.

The way the story is structured projects the concept of time as a linear phenomenon. In the beginning of the story, Yu Tsen is planning to send a message across the German king and ending with his arrest and death. Yu Tsun knows that he is going to die in the near future. Not concerned about his future he still manages to plan how he is going to send this message. His concern is to prove to the king he can save the king's armies. He thinks something has to be done in order to achieve this mission, and this was to be done in the present. He assures in his writing that the present is the most important time in life, due to the fact that from our present actions we can manipulate the future.

The road to Stephen Albert's suggests the philosophy of forking paths and decision making. However, Yu Tsun is instructed to always stay in the left of every crossroad. Spies are trained in a military way. When soldier march, they start marching starting from the left foot which is a military trade or custom. This means that even though the road may