The End is a short story written by Jorge Luis Borges. Released in 1953, it serves as an epilogue to the epic poem Martín Fierro.
Characters[]
- Recabarren - a shopowner
- The black man - the brother of a black man killed by Martín Fierro within his titular poem
- Martín Fierro - known largely as "the stranger"
Plot[]
One afternoon, a shopowner named Recabarren finds a black man playing a guitar outside of his store. The black man becomes a regular figure outside of his store. While still at the store, the black man challenges a stranger to a musical duel. The next day, Recabarren has a stroke and his right side is paralyzed. This stroke makes the shopowner "habituated to living in the present".
Several days later - "beneath the final sun of the day", a horseman rides towards Recabarren's store. Recabarren hears him speak with the black man but does not see them. The two talk as though they are old acquaintances that have spent a long time waiting for each other before beginning a duel. Right before the duel, the black man asks his opponent - the legendary Martín Fierro - to give the duel his all, just as he did when he killed his brother seven years beforehand. The two then begin their duel. Though Martín Fierro wounds his opponent, he is killed. It is said that after the murder, the black man becomes a nobody - a stranger - for he had "no further mission on earth, but he had killed a man".
Sources[]
- Wikipedia