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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Labyrinths and Mazes

Labyrinths and mazes are a major motif in the story, reflecting Borges’s theme of multiple intersecting realities. The story’s title refers to Ts-ui Pên’s idea of infinite variations of reality, splitting off like forking paths from decision points. It also describes a literal maze, like those suggested by the “symmetrical gardens” of Yu Tsun’s childhood and the lost labyrinth of Ts-ui Pên, which Yu Tsun and his family believe was a real maze their ancestor either failed to create or hid so well that they cannot find it. While following the children’s directions to Stephen Albert’s house in Ashgrove, Yu Tsun reflects that their advice to turn left at every crossroad matches the directions to solving certain mazes. This walk replicates the historical use of labyrinths as pathways to walk in contemplation in order to achieve an enlightened state, as shown by Yu Tsun’s reflections on the journey and the enlightenment he experiences during his conversation with Albert. The revelation that Ts-ui Pên’s labyrinth is a metaphor for his novel and that the apparently incoherent book is in fact demonstrating his maze-like ideas about the nature of time and reality becomes the enlightenment promised by the maze Yu Tsun has followed to get there, both in terms of his walk from the train station and his life journey from his childhood in China to spying for Germany.

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