Analysis Of Mark Borges 'The Circular Ruins'

Mark Wallace writes that the stories that Borges writes “are based on genuine dread of the endless time and space and a wise skepticism, but for the most part that dread happens on the level of ideas and not in the narrative itself as such… the dread comes from contemplating the philosophical puzzle the stories present.” Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius makes the reader contemplate mankind’s need to make connections and see order in a seemingly orderless world. The narrator states that “any symmetry, any system with an appearance of order—dialectical materialism, anti-Semitism, Nazism—could spellbind and hypnotize mankind” (81). The Circular Ruins raises questions of the way mankind perceives the world and if what is perceived is actually in existence. …show more content…
The creator of the man realizes that he, too, is a dream, realizing “that he, too was but an appearance that another man was dreaming” (100). The Immortal makes the reader examine the fleeting nature of his or her own life, stating that “death (or reference to death) makes men precious and pathetic; their ghostliness is touching; any act they preform may be their last” (192). However, the most disturbing of the stories and the one which inspires the most dread is the Lottery in Babylon. The Lottery in Babylon raises questions of the morality of human motives. It examines the idea that one chance can change one’s fate. It examines how the lottery started so innocently and evolved into a way of life which dominates the entire society. It also is disturbing because the lottery did not receive widespread popularity until after the Company’s introduced unlucky