Garden Of Forking Paths

In the first short story, The Garden of Forking Paths, the narrator is in fact the main character. Yu Tsun was a military man working for the German army, though he is Chinese by decent. He is the ancestor of a great and confusing writer, Ts’ui Pen. He is telling us the story from his point of view as it happens to him. This means that in this particular story the narrator knows about the same as us in the large scale. Though he may know more little details, the main point of the story unfolds to him and us at the same time. His role is to help us understand the urgency and mission of this story, to understand why he is doing what he is. In this story, Yu Tsun is on the run from an enemy captain who is trying to arrest him, but he cannot be …show more content…
He seems to be a writer of various texts, and completely enamored by Shakespeare. He seems to be a very curious man, and very educated. He is the one that is telling the story, and he is again telling it from a first person point of view. He is again a vessel through which the author can share a story. He becomes more powerful as the story goes on, and the reader becomes more enthralled by him and what is happening. He commands listeners with his accounts of life and knows more than the reader, but only gives what is necessary at the time. He is the way in which we can see just how powerful this story …show more content…
He describes a night out with two other men, David Thorpe and Major Barclay. They are sitting in a pub having a conversation about rare artifacts, and in the second half of the night he is alone with David Thorpe. This is where Thorpe offers up “Shakespeare’s memory” to Hermann, and he accepts it. The next bit is about how through time the memory comes to him and he can believe it rather than fabricate it. In the end however, he is desperate to give it up and dials random numbers until he finally gets someone else to accept the memory, and he can once again be at peace. Hermann is telling us his own story, from his own memory. It is being recalled for the sake of telling the reader, not unfolding as we both go along. The author’s relationship with the narrative is that he wants to communicate to us the possibility of something like this actually happening. It is a shame to know that such great minds die, and the idea of their minds living on is almost believable. The frame story once again seeks to give us background so that we have a small idea of whom we are dealing with and why. All characters in a story are important, no matter how short a role. This story serves to link the author and the narrator by showing us that this is more than a story; it is a train of thought from the author directly through the narrator into the reader. The narrator’s relationship with