A Structuralist Reading Of Borges

English 15 [literary theory] Professor Boggs 07.09.2006 [nick williams]

A Structuralist Reading of Borges’ The Intruder (La Intruda)

Borges’ The Intruder is not a straightforward fictional tale. The first paragraph in the text frames the story by alluding to its telling and retelling, its slight distortions, its history. The first two words of the (English) text, “People say. . .” invoke the legendary and popular nature of the story and the relative insignificance of the author. It is further positioned in the real world, as if more fact than fiction, by the reference to “those hard-bitten men living on the edge of Buenos Aires before the turn of the century.” This conjures up for the reader certain reference points in the real, non-literary, world. Whether the reader knows anything about “those hardbitten men” or even Buenos Aires, this invocation puts the following story in a structural framework. The story is even further ‘factualized’ by the narrator claiming it is slightly distorted or modified each time it is told (implying that there is a factual story from which to deviate) and that he will undoubtedly “give in to the writer’s temptation of emphasizing or adding certain details.” These modifications to the story are essentially changes in structure rather than changes in plot or characters. We need not to have heard the story before to know this. After this structural introduction, the story is told in full. Upon close reading of The Intruder there appear a number of binary oppositions that serve to highlight, as parallels, the central opposition. The narrator draws attention to the differences between the original story and the text that has survived through him. There is a simultaneous presence of religion and immorality in the brothers’ lives. The references to “a worn Bible with a dark binding,” Juliana’s

“glass-bead rosary and the tiny crucifix her mother had left her” and “Cain” call to our attention the omnipresence of religion and its paraphernalia despite the intrusion of alcohol, gambling, whore-houses and criminal behavior into these men’s lives. There is a contrast between the Nilsen brothers, “living on the edge of Buenos Aires,” and the people living within the city. There is briefly mentioned a distinction between the brothers and “the rest of the toughs who gave the Costa Brava its unsavory reputation,” and even a contrast between Argentina and abroad (p. 162). There was something that set the Nilsen brothers apart from other people, Argentines, the other “hard-bitten men” and, eventually, even each other. All the “intruders” mentioned above (the modifications of the text, immorality, the brothers themselves, their foreign lineage) share something else in common. They are all in some way hidden, unrecognized or surprising. The tellings of the story are “more elaborate” or certain details are changed each time, but it is not revealed what is changed. Thievery, drinking, gambling, and “carousing with women” were all regular events in the lives of the Nilsens, but they were in some ways hidden. They kept their drinking and gambling to the “corner saloon” or at home, and their “amorous escapades had always been carried out in darkened passageways or in whorehouses.” Even the criminal behavior that supported them was hidden. No one could threaten or combat them, and all knew that “to fall out with one of them was to reckon with two enemies.” The brothers were likely of foreign descent, “tall . . . and wore their red hair long. Denmark or Ireland . . . ran in the blood of these two Argentine brothers.” But the brothers were not aware of it, and “probably never heard of” Denmark or Ireland. The final and central contrast that all this parallels in The Intruder is that between Juliana Burgos, the intrudess, and the two brothers, Cristián and Eduardo, between romantic and fraternal love. Before Juliana entered their lives the Nilsens kept their love affairs private and separate, hidden. Cristián brings Juliana home, as

a slave who “attended both men’s wants with an animal submission.” Cristián encouraged this to keep Juliana from distancing the brothers, as Eduardo had become jealous and “in love with Cristián’s woman.” Cristián made no attempt to hide Juliana from the public as he adorned her with “the most hideous junk jewelry” and took to “showing her off at parties.” But between the two brothers she remained ignored. They “never mentioned her name” and would argue about “the sale of some hides” to avoid arguing over Juliana. When the decision is made to remove the intrusion from their lives and sell Juliana back to the whorehouse the brothers both secretly see her. The eventual murder of their mistress had the power to either bring them closer or drive them apart, just as Juliana had in life. “One more link bound them now,” but would the be able to forget her?