Borges And Hole In The Wall By Etgar Keret

Both of the narratives “Borges and I” Jorge Luis Borges and “Hole in the Wall” by Etgar Keret employ the device of multiple worlds in their narrative. Borges introduces a multiple world in “Borges and I” through the use of an embedded narrative. According to Abbot, an embedded narrative allows for “another world to open up with its own story and central character” (Abbot 167). An embedded narrative typically unfolds organically from the thoughts of the main character or the voice of the narrator, to give the illusion of the tangents being stream of conscious. The story opens with the narrator mentioning a man named Borges and unfolds from there:
It’s Borges, the other one, that things happen to. I walk though Buenos Aries and I pause – mechanically now, perhaps – to gaze at the arch of an entryway and its inner door; news of Borges reaches me by mail, or I see his name on a list of academics…My tastes runs to hourglasses, maps, eighteenth-century typefaces, etymologies…Borges shares these preferences (Borges 1)
The story begins with a statement about Borges and a description of the main’s character’s action. Due to this, the narrative establishes the device of introducing multiple worlds as more than a gimmick since it is based around concrete information. The information only expands out when both a character descriptor and an image about Borges has been stated. The reader has concrete information to hold onto as the narrative spins out into the metaphysical. The main character starts to mention their “tastes run[ning] to hourglasses, maps” and other things that reminds them of Borges. Without the inclusion of a narrative tangent, there would not be insight to the relationship between the two characters and the reader would be unable to discover what differentiates them professionally and why. A multiple world narrative is meaningful to “Borges and I” because of the repetition of I. Without information about the opposing character, the reader would be unable to find out about the main character. It is through the descriptions of Borges that the reader gains knowledge of the main character. The embedded narrative in “Borges and I” replicates the way people think throughout the day. …show more content…
According to Abbot, “narrative worlds replicate the actual world we live in. Every day we hope, dream, fear, urge, hypothesize, fantasize and in many ways create worlds that don’t come into being” (Abbot 167). The main character thrives off of the idea of a possible world and instead reflects on the past. The entire narrative is the main character’s attempt to understand their place in the world while in an opposed positon to Borges. Without the embedded narrative, there would be no knowledge about the main character’s goal. Kerat develops a multiple world in “Hole in the Wall” by creating a “forking path”, which acts in opposition to an embedded narrative. While an embedded narrative is the possibility of a different world, a forking path is the literal interpretation of a different world. Abbot defines a forking path as “two worlds, with two different conditions for what is possible, and two different kinds of time. But, these do not conflict with one another” (Abbot 168). A forking path is beneficial to the development of the narrative since the angel is something not found in the actual world we live in. So, the narrative takes place in an alternate world. But Udi, the