Why Does Moon Choose an Alternate Narrator

     The twist in "The Form of The Sword" comes when the "Englishman" reveals he is Moon. But why did he choose not to reveal this at the beginning? At the end of the story he says it is is so that Borges would hear him through, but there seem to be many other interpretations as well. He says "despise me", and perhaps wants others to understand that what he did was wrong; in presenting the story from his victim's perspective, he allows the listener to condemn him with impunity, while if he had presented it from his own perspective the listener might be reluctant to do so. Or perhaps it is simply for his own purposes: it might be too difficult for him to recount the events from his own perspective simply because he would feel guilty the whole time, but by telling it from another perspective he separates himself from who he was. Similarly, it may be that he wants to identify with the rebel he betrayed. He may have changed from who he was at the past, or be ashamed of what he did. Now he wants to be strong like his friend was, and he feels that he has become as such. The Moon in his story is another man who he wishes to believe is separate from him, but he tells the story to explain his ideology regarding rebellion, cowardice, and betrayal.

     There seem to be endless feasible explanations for his choice, and I do not think we can determine which one is correct. Perhaps this very ambiguity of meaning was what was intended by Borges. He wants to show that these very serious events, which lead to the death of some unfortunate people, are very complex; making moral judgements about any such actions will never be a universal truth. Since there is no obvious moral high ground, this also has implications for moral decision-making which, in general, seeks to find the 'best' answer to these kinds of dilemmas. But there may be no correct answer because different ways of looking at the same things yield different results.