Victoria Gornopolskaya

“The Garden of Forking Paths” was very sophisticated and suspenseful, something I did not expect from Borges. It offers an innovative philosophical explanation for the “path” which we call life. According to Borges, life is full of twists and turns, all leading up to the same path. In other words, life is analogous to a labyrinth, because once we find our way through the tangled labyrinth one life has ended and a new life has begun. By choosing the right path to follow we navigate our way through the labyrinth until we reach the forking paths. Just as the narrator in the story fulfills one path of his life, he begins anew, and will continue doing so until he reaches his final destiny. Life has a way of working itself out until the ultimate path is completed; once you have achieved this sort of path then your life has satisfied its meaning. I admire the attitude that Borges holds towards life, he is indeed an author who connects with his work.