How is my Story Analysis
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millie
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How is my Story Analysis
The Book of Sands
Have you ever been so consumed in the mystery of something that it’s started to take over your life just working to figure it out? I recently read the short story “The Book of Sands,” about a book collector who comes across an infinite book: every time he opens the book it is different. ‘The Book of Sands,” by Jorge Borges shows the human nature of working to understand something that we can’t understand through irony, magic realism, theme, plot/conflict, character, and satire.
The irony in the story shows the human nature of working to understand something that we can’t understand The book starts to annoy and consume his whole life so he has to get rid of it. It is situational irony because I expected him to do something else in the end. You can see when he gets rid of it in the quote, “I lost The Book of Sand on one of the basement’s musty shelves.” This quote explains how through his frustration of the book he gets rid of it. This is important because it has to do with the theme and satire in the sense that the consumption of something unknown leads to some frustration. It’s the cause and effect. He got frustrated so he acts on it and gets rid of the book.
Another element in the story is magic realism. It has a realistic setting, characters, and conflict but the book itself is magic realism: it is the one thing in the story that is not believable. The book is magic realism because it is an infinite book and is always changing and those don’t exist. (Too our knowledge!): “I laid my left hand on the cover and trying to put my thumb on the flyleaf, I opened the book. It was useless. Every time I tried, a number of pages came between the cover and my thumb. It was as if they kept growing from the book” (45). This shows the book is always changing and shows it is magic realism. This is important because of this unbelievable element it becomes the antagonist and this affects the character of the story.
The theme is we work to understand something we can’t understand and we can’t except that we won’t be able to figure things out. It is implied in the story. “I felt that the book was a nightmarish object, an obscene thing that affronted and tainted reality itself.” Page 47. This shows that because of the mystery of the object the protagonist gets frustrated. He starts to never want to leave the book and just study so that he might better understand it. The irony shows what he does because of it. This is important in the story because it is the message tried to get across. We take something we know can’t be figured out and we still pick it apart and try to understand it.
The conflict in this story is the internal conflict between the character and the book, which in a sense becomes a character. The conflict is the book collector trying to figure out the book but not being able to so he gets angry. He throws himself into figuring out the book, all the while losing his friends and social life. “I had only a few friends left; now I had stopped seeing them.” Page 47. This shows hw he starts to lose friends. “Summer came and went and I realized the book was monstrous.” Page 47. This shows that it became his life in a way. He forgot his true life and based everything on this never ending object. The conflict leads to the theme and satire because it also is what happens after he realizes what the book made him become. His actions are key components to those elements.
The character is harder to distinguish in this story. The book collector is a round character but also the book becomes a character. It is the antagonist. “A prisoner of the book, I never went out much.” Page 47. This shows that the book is an antagonist, it controls him in away. It creates the conflict because he cannot seem to leave it. In the story it creates the conflict for the protagonist. “As you can see it’s not exactly bibles I stand in need of.” 44. This quote shows what the book collector is like. It shows he is into literature and knows a lot about it because he has a large selection of books and doesn’t need a new one. This contributes into the story because if he would have not been so fascinated about literature he might not have cared about the story as much.
The satire in this story makes fun of the attention span of human nature. We can’t just sit down with a book and look at it over and over. Eventually we get frustrated if we don’t have things figured out in a matter of time. Also, we want to keep our secrets to ourselves. “I got down the impossible book and leafed through its pages. To the luck of owning it was added the fear of having it stole, and then the misgiving of having it infinite.” Pg. 46-47. This shows how we constantly work to know things we can’t know and having to figure things out. It also shows we keep the secrets to ourselves by the way he was scared someone was going to take his book. This contributes to the theme and how we view the human nature of our world.
By looking at the satire, character, conflict, theme, irony, and magic realism you can see that The Book of Sands is about trying to figure out the mysteries of the unknown. Satire shows this in how we obsess about things we don’t understand and we try to understand something in an amount of time. Character shows that the character also affects the outcome of the story and his actions as a person. The conflict showed that internal conflict of trying to understand something. The theme is we work to understand something we can’t understand and we can’t except that we won’t be able to figure things out. From this the character realized he needed to let the book go. Through the irony he shows the effect of the cause and effect. He acts on the frustration of the book. He feels like his life has been consumed by this one thing. Magic realism in the story is key because it’s the concept of something unknown. Why can’t we except the fact that there are some things our minds will never be able to comprehend? Why does a child always ask why? We want to know everything around us. Our nature is to be curious in how things work, but some things we can never understand. Next time you come across something infinite just except you won’t be able to understand.
Borges, Jorge Luis. ""The Book of Sands"" Elements of Literature: Fourth Course. Austin, Tex.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1989. Print.
Have you ever been so consumed in the mystery of something that it’s started to take over your life just working to figure it out? I recently read the short story “The Book of Sands,” about a book collector who comes across an infinite book: every time he opens the book it is different. ‘The Book of Sands,” by Jorge Borges shows the human nature of working to understand something that we can’t understand through irony, magic realism, theme, plot/conflict, character, and satire.
The irony in the story shows the human nature of working to understand something that we can’t understand The book starts to annoy and consume his whole life so he has to get rid of it. It is situational irony because I expected him to do something else in the end. You can see when he gets rid of it in the quote, “I lost The Book of Sand on one of the basement’s musty shelves.” This quote explains how through his frustration of the book he gets rid of it. This is important because it has to do with the theme and satire in the sense that the consumption of something unknown leads to some frustration. It’s the cause and effect. He got frustrated so he acts on it and gets rid of the book.
Another element in the story is magic realism. It has a realistic setting, characters, and conflict but the book itself is magic realism: it is the one thing in the story that is not believable. The book is magic realism because it is an infinite book and is always changing and those don’t exist. (Too our knowledge!): “I laid my left hand on the cover and trying to put my thumb on the flyleaf, I opened the book. It was useless. Every time I tried, a number of pages came between the cover and my thumb. It was as if they kept growing from the book” (45). This shows the book is always changing and shows it is magic realism. This is important because of this unbelievable element it becomes the antagonist and this affects the character of the story.
The theme is we work to understand something we can’t understand and we can’t except that we won’t be able to figure things out. It is implied in the story. “I felt that the book was a nightmarish object, an obscene thing that affronted and tainted reality itself.” Page 47. This shows that because of the mystery of the object the protagonist gets frustrated. He starts to never want to leave the book and just study so that he might better understand it. The irony shows what he does because of it. This is important in the story because it is the message tried to get across. We take something we know can’t be figured out and we still pick it apart and try to understand it.
The conflict in this story is the internal conflict between the character and the book, which in a sense becomes a character. The conflict is the book collector trying to figure out the book but not being able to so he gets angry. He throws himself into figuring out the book, all the while losing his friends and social life. “I had only a few friends left; now I had stopped seeing them.” Page 47. This shows hw he starts to lose friends. “Summer came and went and I realized the book was monstrous.” Page 47. This shows that it became his life in a way. He forgot his true life and based everything on this never ending object. The conflict leads to the theme and satire because it also is what happens after he realizes what the book made him become. His actions are key components to those elements.
The character is harder to distinguish in this story. The book collector is a round character but also the book becomes a character. It is the antagonist. “A prisoner of the book, I never went out much.” Page 47. This shows that the book is an antagonist, it controls him in away. It creates the conflict because he cannot seem to leave it. In the story it creates the conflict for the protagonist. “As you can see it’s not exactly bibles I stand in need of.” 44. This quote shows what the book collector is like. It shows he is into literature and knows a lot about it because he has a large selection of books and doesn’t need a new one. This contributes into the story because if he would have not been so fascinated about literature he might not have cared about the story as much.
The satire in this story makes fun of the attention span of human nature. We can’t just sit down with a book and look at it over and over. Eventually we get frustrated if we don’t have things figured out in a matter of time. Also, we want to keep our secrets to ourselves. “I got down the impossible book and leafed through its pages. To the luck of owning it was added the fear of having it stole, and then the misgiving of having it infinite.” Pg. 46-47. This shows how we constantly work to know things we can’t know and having to figure things out. It also shows we keep the secrets to ourselves by the way he was scared someone was going to take his book. This contributes to the theme and how we view the human nature of our world.
By looking at the satire, character, conflict, theme, irony, and magic realism you can see that The Book of Sands is about trying to figure out the mysteries of the unknown. Satire shows this in how we obsess about things we don’t understand and we try to understand something in an amount of time. Character shows that the character also affects the outcome of the story and his actions as a person. The conflict showed that internal conflict of trying to understand something. The theme is we work to understand something we can’t understand and we can’t except that we won’t be able to figure things out. From this the character realized he needed to let the book go. Through the irony he shows the effect of the cause and effect. He acts on the frustration of the book. He feels like his life has been consumed by this one thing. Magic realism in the story is key because it’s the concept of something unknown. Why can’t we except the fact that there are some things our minds will never be able to comprehend? Why does a child always ask why? We want to know everything around us. Our nature is to be curious in how things work, but some things we can never understand. Next time you come across something infinite just except you won’t be able to understand.
Borges, Jorge Luis. ""The Book of Sands"" Elements of Literature: Fourth Course. Austin, Tex.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1989. Print.
