The Garden of Forking Paths Response
What is Borges’s notion of the role of human beings in the determination and directing of their own history and evolution? According to Borges, what can the human creative powers, will, and imagination, accomplish?
Throughout Borges’ story, it is mentioned that there are an infinite number of possibilities in an infinite number of timelines, these possibilities depend upon the actions of individuals. At one point, Albert explains the possibilities of these timelines by saying, “in some you exist, and not I; in others I, and not you; in others, both of us” (Borges). Each of these possible timelines depend on the actions of the people within them. Ultimately, in the timeline that the story is written in, Yu Tsun murders Albert, removing him from that timeline. It was the actions of Yu that resulted in the elements of that timeline. With this, Borges is saying that we as humans have control over our own lives and our own timelines. Through our own actions, we can erase others, or ourselves from timelines. We can alter reality completely through small seemingly insignificant actions. However, Borges also suggests the the alteration of these timelines is “insignificant” because of the existence of other timelines. The narrator describes the final occurrences of the story “unreal” and “insignificant.” It seems as if these occurrences are referred to as such because, while they are significant in this particular timeline, they are miniscule in the infinite universe of incalculable timelines.
This story reminded me of cheesy time-travel movies where the main character obliterates their own reality through one small mistake. It made me really think about the impact our actions can have on the timeline that we know as reality. For example, in the classic Christmas movie Its a Wonderful Life, George Bailey is taken to another reality by an angel on Christmas eve, a timeline in which he was never born. Like Borges suggests, this separate timeline is vastly different due to the fact that George Bailey was never born. This small change in the timeline even caused the deaths of some people George knew and loved. In a separate timeline, everyone’s life was completely different from the other timeline because of one person’s actions. Yu Tsun reminds me of George Bailey in the sense that he changed his own timeline. While George Bailey certainly never murdered anyone, he and Yu Tsun both effected their timelines through their own actions. The power of our actions can be difficult to comprehend and stories like this remind me that my actions can have a negative or positive impact on the world as I know it. It makes me wonder if other timelines really do exist, and I am led to further wonder what my reality would be like had I taken different paths throughout my life.
