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One of the more interesting parts of The Form of the Sword is the end when it is revealed that the man telling the story is not who he says he is. At the very end of the story, Moon notes that he told the story this way so that Borges “would hear it till the end”. Why does he do this? His remorse for his actions is so strong that he refuses to even recount the events without making himself the good guy. He feels that people will not respect and accept him if he tells the events truthfully, and it is clearly hard for him to admit the truth at the end of the story. We don’t get to see (the character) Borges’ reaction to this reveal, which suggests that Borges (the author) is leaving the reaction to the reader. So I asked myself what I would have done.
I would probably be less annoyed if Moon had just admitted that he was a coward, as opposed to leading me on and only revealing at the end that he was not as noble as he suggested during the story. For me, the dishonesty outweighs the cowardice he showed, as he has demonstrated that he does feel remorse about his actions. While I do respect that he acknowledges that he has done wrong, I feel like he has still not come to terms exactly with what he has done as he still insecure about it and cannot fully own it. However, I will say that he is right that the way he told it is more exciting.
I think the dishonesty is part of his character. This is a tale about a man who betrays his comrade so that he can go free. It is unclear though if he takes the role of the hero to avoid himself or that he is so guilty that he needs to emphasize how much of a coward he is. I'd imagine that it is a combination of both.
ReplyDeleteI think that not revealing his identity until the end does not necessarily make him a coward. Clearly, based off their dialogue, he knew he went in planning to reveal his identity at some point; if he did not want to do that he could have created some alternate fiction from the beginning. To some extent, I think that the way he presents the story actually allows for more judgement from Borges. We tend to sympathize with narrators so by choosing his victim as the narrator he makes Borges (and us) sympathize with the victim, and thus condemn him even more.
ReplyDeleteI was also trying to figure out what purpose his storytelling from a different perspective served. It seemed like he was kind of overreacting in thinking that Borges wouldn't keep listening to the story if he knew the truth, especially since he already made him promise he wouldn't judge him. I think it mostly just shows more cowardice, that he's not even willing to own up and tell the real story.
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