Juan Dahlmann's Death

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Recommended: Describe fear of death

Although a time of death is uncertain, there are individuals that are given a rough estimate of how long they have to live. As a result, fear begins to emerge and the individual begins to ponder about their life and any regrets that they may have. In “The South” Borges introduces Juan Dahlmann as a librarian who identifies with his military-hero grandfather, “his ancestor of romantic death”. However, Dahlmann’s life is changed after he injures his head on the edge of an open door, causing him to be sent to a sanitarium. It is here that he receives devastating news, “He stoically endured the curative measures, which were painful, but when the surgeon told him he had been on the point of death from septicemia, Dahlmann dissolved in tears of self-pity for his fate” (168). Dahlmann’s demise is expected due to his illness. However, it can be inferred that he …show more content…

This can be due his aspiration to die in a similar manner to his military-hero grandfather. Dahlmann’s grandfather’s death demonstrates that he was someone worthy of recognition and worthy of the life that he possessed. This can be related back to Octavio Paz’s quote, as he believes that “death defines life”. As a result, an individual’s death that occurs without a sense of accomplishment, pride, or resolve is seen as someone without a life. However, as the story continues there are instances in which the reader questions whether or not he is in a dream-like state. This is illustrated as the narrator states, “as he smoothed the cat’s black coat, that this contact was an illusion and that the two beings, man and cat, were as good as separated by a glass, for man lives in time, in succession, while the magical animal lives in the present, in the eternity of the instant” (169-170). This causes the reader to question Dahlmann’s sense of reality as he is described as being tortured despite being in the south, a place that he has

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