The Garden of Forking Paths

Because the device of metaphor essentially offers a dual narrative (i.e., the literal versus the figurative), the central metaphor in Borges’s “The Garden of Forking Paths” serves as a metaphor for metaphor itself. Two characters come to understand that the late Ts’ui Pên’s projects to create an infinite novel and an elaborate labyrinth were actually the same endeavor: His novel entitled The Garden of Forking Paths follows a labyrinthine structure in which the author pursues all possible choices, creating multiple possible narratives. The story builds and expands the labyrinth with each set of simultaneous choices.

Multiple instances of mirroring, repetition, and correspondence shape the story and define its labyrinthine spirit. The story “The Garden of Forking Paths” thus shares an attribute of Ts’ui Pên’s project; the reader can follow more than one interpretation of language, nuance, translation, or bias as these instances unfold. Depending on a word or an assertion, the story may be read with different results. Borges’s story, then, is its own linguistic labyrinth.

As a metaphor, labyrinths can also represent individual choice and self-determination. They can symbolize entrapment and fate, as well as deliberate purpose and meditation.