The Garden of Forking Paths: Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Non-Linear Nature of Time and Reality

Throughout the story, Borges explores the non-linear nature of time and reality. The title “The Garden of Forking Paths” refers to Ts-ui Pên’s idea that infinite realities are created as people face decision points. Each decision creates a new path, and the outcomes of those decisions create more opportunities for choices that split into their own paths. Yu Tsun’s decisions over the course of the day, in combination with the decisions of others—Madden in particular—map a surprising path from the moment he realizes his identity has been compromised to his arrest and death sentence. Although this is the main narrative of the story, at certain moments Borges hints at the existence of infinite other realities, sensed by Yu Tsun as “pullulations,” phantom versions of himself and others rapidly multiplying around him, at moments when many realities converge on a shared place and time.

Borges uses the structure of his own story to further undermine the notion of time as linear and reality as singular. Rather than telling the story in chronological order, Borges begins after the events of the story with the history book section that the story claims to explain. Throughout the main narration of the story, Yu Tsun switches from telling the story to inserting his observations and emotions about the events from a later perspective. Borges deliberately withholds details from the reader in these moments, so that their full meaning is not clear until after the reader has completed the story, just as the full meaning of the “torrential rain” that delayed the military action described in the opening paragraph does not become clear until the editor within the story and the reader discover that the “rain” is a euphemism for the German bombs that showered the British artillery park Yu Tsun’s actions revealed. Encountering these and other similar details without understanding their meaning in the story leads the reader to misinterpret them, and in so doing creates other narratives. These additional narratives, including one in which the British are delayed by literal rain, become forking paths of new stories in the reader’s mind, in keeping with the theme of non-linear time and reality.

The Contradictory Nature of Loyalty

Unlike a typical spy thriller set in wartime, “The Garden of Forking Paths” presents loyalty as a complex and contradictory subject. Both Yu Tsun and Madden show a self-sacrificing devotion to the countries they are working for. Yu Tsun sacrifices his life for Germany, throwing his energy into passing on his secret before Madden captures him rather than attempting to save himself. However, he professes disgust for Germany and deep admiration for Stephen Albert, the Englishman he murders to accomplish his goals. Similarly, Madden is relentless in his pursuit of German spies on behalf of the British government, although he is himself Irish and therefore part of a group rebelling against Britain following a long history of persecution. Borges argues that Madden’s Irish identity in fact makes him behave with greater loyalty to Britain, since he must convince his superiors that he is not betraying them. In this way, the contradictory nature of loyalty requires Yu Tsun and Madden to betray their own interests in order to fulfill their duty to the nations they work for.

Personal loyalty is also complex in the story. Yu Tsun admires Albert and repeatedly insists he is his friend, though he nevertheless murders him in order to achieve his goal for Germany, despite the fact that he values Albert’s knowledge and ideas and disdains Germany. By killing Albert, Yu Tsun betrays his own ideals in order to prove the worth of Chinese people to the Chief, a racist man he hates. His actions end the life and work of a man devoted to the study of Chinese culture and prevent the rehabilitation of his great-grandfather’s reputation, since following Albert’s death and his own, the true nature of Ts-ui Pên’s ideas will again be lost. Yu Tsun closes the story by declaring his deep sorrow at having killed Albert, yet he is simultaneously ecstatic that his plan has succeeded. Maintaining his loyalty to Germany requires him to betray his own values and interests.

The Inescapable Nature of Destiny

Borges’s idea of infinite forking paths of realities that form when people make choices paradoxically sets up a theme in the story of the inescapable nature of destiny. In the story, Yu Tsun and other characters make choices that affect the world, showing that they have free will and the ability to change events. However, a web of infinite branching realities, as illustrated in Ts-ui Pên’s novel, requires that each choice a person faces be decided in every possible way. Yu Tsun takes decisive action throughout the story, but if he acted differently, some other version of himself would still follow the path laid out in the story. In this way, his free will is an illusion. Although he is proud of the actions that lead to his victory, Yu Tsun also refers to his “destiny” to be hunted, implying that there was no path he could have followed that would not have led to him being pursued by Madden.

Some events in the novel subtly imply a destiny running through the characters’ lives. The children Yu Tsun encounters on the Ashgrove platform direct him to Albert’s house without his asking, which suggests they already knew where he must be going. Albert refers to Ts-ui Pên’s decision to turn his back on power and prestige in order to create his novel as a “strange destiny,” as though he did not truly choose his course. Yu Tsun’s plan is a convoluted one that should have been difficult to guess, and he covered his tracks by buying a ticket for a station beyond Ashgrove, yet Madden arrives at Albert’s house only an hour after Yu Tsun does, as if destiny led him to board the next train and proceeded there without question or error. As he records his deposition, Yu Tsun describes his neck as “hankering” for the noose, as if his execution is the completion of a destiny he cannot resist.

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