The Sword and the Dummy
In Borges's "Form of the Sword," I did not fully realize what was happening until the end of the story. Maybe I shouldn't be reading when I'm half asleep, or maybe it was the transition from the Narrator's point of view to Moon telling his own story first person, but I did not realize that it had switched narrators. I did, however, think that the mystery of the story would be how Moon got his scar. I knew that we, the audiance, would be told how the man's scar was acquired, but it never occured to me that the story had been flipped. Also, I believe that the dummy that the firing squad shot at the end of the tale was the man that Moon betrayed and that is why he remembers the way the squad repeatedly shot the dummy, rather than the bodies at every street corner. I believe that Moon regrets what occured and that is why he ends with "despise me," because he already despises himself.
Also, the type of sword that was used was typically used by people on horseback. And a fun fact about riding a horse deals with swords: if anyone has every been riding, you can remember that you most likely mounted the horse from its left side (if you didn't then something was wrong). This is because most people held their swords in their right hands so their sword needed to be on their left hip. In order to make sure that the sword would get caught on any of the tack on the horse the riders would always mount from the left side by stepping up on their left foot and then swinging their right leg over.
I like your theory about the dummy at the street corner. If the dummy is truly the man whom Moon has betrayed, then Moon must despise himself so much that he avoided explicitly revealing the death of that man. However, why does Moon call the man"dummy", or "manikin" according to the version that I was reading? Thanks for the fun fact by the way!
ReplyDeleteI did not pick up in the idea that the dummy was actually the man on my first reading, but looking at it, this would point to a clue as to the idea that narrator is Moon. After all, the idea that a firing squad would shoot a manikin is pretty stupid, but it would still take a bit of extrapolation.
ReplyDeleteWhen I originally read the story, I did not know that the manikin was the man that Moon had betrayed. I didn't even know that guy was dead until we discussed it in class.
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