The South is a short story written by Jorge Luis Borges. Released in 1953, it tells of a man being sent away and returning to his home.
Characters[]
- Juan Dahlmann - a secretary at a library whose family has ties to Argentinian history
- The shopkeeper
Plot[]
In February of 1939, a municipal library's secretary named Juan Dahlmann receives a copy of Weil's One Thousand and One Nights. Eager to read the volume, he rushes up the stairs to his apartment and slashes his head open on a windowframe. The wound leaves him insomniac and bedridden for several days - which become a living hell for him - before he is brought to a clinic. The treatment does little to help Juan's injury - as he is said to realize that his flat was merely a "suburb of Hell". He is confined to a meager cell and a nigh-delirious state of mind.
Several days later, Juan recovers from sepsis and is discharged from the hospital. He decides to visit a family estate in "the South" that he owns. While in a taxi, Juan sees the city of Buenos Aires for the first time since he was first put into the clinic. He boards a train heading towards the Pampas plains, where his estate lies.
While riding on the train towards his estate, Juan tries to read the volume that caused his injury but is kept from doing so by his love for the sights of the Pampas. One of the conductors visits him to tell him that the train cannot stop at its usual destination and has to stop at an earlier point. This point is an abandoned railway station which Juan quickly leaves. While walking through the roads in the middle of the night, Juan encounters an almacén de campo used by the Gauchos and enters it.
Once inside, Juan is harrased by three farm hands. At first, he ignores them but when they continue to harrass them he begins to leave. The shopkeeper tells him to ignore them due to their drunkenness. Unnervingly, he uses Juan's real name despite never having met him. Juan decides to confront the bullies - leading one of them to brandish a knife. The shopkeeper tries to keep Juan (who does not have a knife on him) from duelling but one of his patrons throws Juan a knife. While picking up the knife, Juan realizes that he will soon die as he is fatally inexperienced in knife fights. Despite this, Juan decides to challenge his opponent as he finds the death honourable. Juan and the three farm hands step outside and the story ends before we see how the fight ends (or even begins).
See also[]
- The Insufferable Gaucho by Roberto Bolaño
Sources[]
- Wikipedia