“I am all others, any man is all men”

While reading through Borges’s story, the part that stuck out to me is the Englishman’s words “I am all others, any man is all men” (121). These words show that the Englishman understands Moon’s cowardice and feelings at the time and says that he is just as likely as Moon to be a coward in the situation. Reading through the story for the first time, these words seemed really strange and philosophical, but when I reached the end, they all made sense – the Englishman was Moon himself. Therefore this serve as an important foreshadowing of the unexpected turn at the end of the story.

Besides foreshadowing, these words are also one of the central themes in the story. The idea that one man can be many different people is prominent throughout the Englishman’s narration. By telling the story from the perspective of the man who took Moon in, the Englishman takes on the role of both the traitor and the hero. Moon also reveals his intense guilt at his actions through this narrative style, which makes us and the narrator (Borges) more sympathetic. If he had told his story from his own perspective, there would be a lot more judgement and his listeners would truly ‘despise’ him.