Donald Barthelem's Snow White and Jorge Luis Borges' The Garden of the Forking Paths

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Recommended: Conclusion on analysis of snow white

I believe the use and mention of metaphysics in Jorge Borges The garden of the forking paths and Donald Barthelme’s Snow White is to point out the similarities between metaphysics and metafiction. I believe both authors incorporated metaphysics to draw parallels with making reflections on the mechanics of making and comparing literature, and how we perceive and reflect upon the nature of reality. I believe literature can be interpreted just as any object in the real world, and it is dynamic and changing according to interpretations. An author can integrate their interpretations into their text, in the reality they have created. Metaphysics and metafiction are inherently similar concepts and both novels were intended to demonstrate this idea, by pointing out that just as the realities in the real world reality can be altered so too can a known story change.
Both stories are taken in different periods of time, but generally in the past. Snow White by Donald Barthelme is a modern take of the fairy tale by the Brothers Grim. In the novel Snow White is characterized quite similar to her old self. In the beginning, the description “The hair as black as ebony, the skin white as snow” (Barthelme 4),” shows how similar she appears, yet this version of Snow White has her differences. She is older, and as such her height reflects this change, and she conducts herself not as innocent as she was in the fairy tale. Despite the similarities and differences, it was deliberate that the author chose to create Snow White in this manner, as opposed to an entirely different character that was intended to symbolize Snow White. It was also intended for certain characters to be placed into similar roles, such as how Jane represents the stepmother from th...

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...knowledge, or ideologies change how I view the world, and I continue to change as time goes by. Just as a story is not exactly etched in stone, values change and stories are told in new lights. I think it is important to see how novels can entice readers, draw them into a reality similar to the ones we live in. The idea of a metafiction is akin to metaphysics. Is our reality just like a novel, created by us and molded to out liking, or dismay? I think both Barthelme and Borges intended to show that it may in fact be true, as tales we told as fairy tales can be modernized and events can be interpreted in multiple ways.

Works Cited

Barthelme, Donald. Snow White. New York: Atheneum, 1967. Print.
Borges, Jorge Luis. "The Garden of the Forking Paths." Labyrinths: selected stories & other writings. Augmented ed. New York: New Directions Pub. Corp., 1964. 19-29. Print.

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