The Aleph

The expansion of the universe “growing away from” the narrator’s dead beloved inspires him to action. He claims that “The universe may change, but I shall not” (118). Borges resolves to annually visit the home where Beatriz lived to pay respects to her family, revealing an enduring resolve: five years of such visits have occurred, each with an attempt to prolong these “melancholy and vainly erotic anniversaries” (119). He brings a cake, for example, in the hope of being invited for dinner before he finally comes to “receive the gradual confidences of Carlos Argentino Daneri” (119). Yet another seven years pass before their conversation leads to Argentino’s revelation about his massive poetic project The Earth. This length of time reinforces Borges’s loyalty while foreshadowing the revelation that she was not as devoted to him as he was to her.

Borges’s relationship with Argentino drives the narrative long before the Aleph is introduced. Their rivalry is fierce from the beginning, but it is not until Borges spies the “obscene” letters Beatriz sent Argentino that the narrator and reader appreciate what was transpiring. Argentino, portrayed as conceited and mediocre in the one-sided narrative, is revealed as a rival to Borges.