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3. Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ficciones, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Investigation and Knowledge
Language and Human Consciousness
Perspective, Authorship, and Subjectivity
Infinity
Reality vs. Illusion
Summary
Analysis
In a jungle, a wizard arrives at circular ruins, presumably a temple, containing a statue of a tiger. He hopes to dream a man into existence. Thus, he spends most of his time in the jungle sleeping. He dreams a class of students, where he lectures as their teacher. The wizard begins picking out the students he believes worthy of becoming individuals—these are the students who do not receive the information passively but instead argue with him. Finally, he chooses a student who resembles him, and he dismisses all the other students. However, just as he begins to make great progress with the student, the man loses his ability to sleep and dream.
Though the wizard’s mission is to dream a man into existence, it is notable that he chooses an isolated location to do so. Thus, though his mission centers human interaction, he must be isolated to harness the true power of his mind. In choosing a student that argues with him, the wizard demonstrates that he values the individuality of the student.
Themes
After a month of insomnia, the wizard utters a spell and is able to sleep and dream again. The wizard dreams of the man’s heart and continues to dream up a man one body part at a time. However, when the man remains sleeping, the wizard enlists the help of a deity in the ruins, who reveals himself to be Fire. The deity helps the wizard, but only if the wizard promises to train the dreamed man to serve the Fire God. The dreamed man wakes in the wizard’s dream.
In dreaming the man one small part at a time, the wizard discovers the importance of details in building a human. Rather than creating a fully formed man already in his mind, the wizard must spend time on the complex details that create a human. However, he still must enlist a higher power to complete the transformation.
Themes
The wizard, who sees the dreamed man as his son, spends years training him in his dreams until the Fire God orders the wizard to send his son to another temple. The wizard erases his son’s memories before he does this, so that his son will not know that he was made from a dream and is not a real man.
The wizard’s relationship with the man is akin to that of a father and his child. By erasing his son’s memories, the wizard gives his son the gift of believing that he is an individual.
Themes
Years later, the wizard hears of a man who can walk on fire in the temple where he sent his son. The wizard recalls that the Fire god had said only fire itself would know his son is a phantom. When the fire spreads and engulfs the wizard’s temple, the wizard is unharmed. It is then that he realizes that he, too, is only a figment of someone else’s dreamscape.
In a final twist, the wizard realizes that he, too, is a figment in someone else’s dream. Connecting this to the wizard’s father-like relationship with his “son,” Borges here makes a point about the cyclical nature of parent-child relationships and human psychology.
Themes
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