THE ALEPH

In Borges's story, the Aleph is a point in space that contains all other points. Anyone who gazes into it can see everything in the from every angle simultaneously in the universe. Just like the previous story “Aura” this story is told in a first person narrative.
At the beginning of the story, he is mourning the recent death of a woman whom he loved, named Beatriz Viterbo, and resolves to stop by the house of her family to pay his respects. Over time, he comes to know her first cousin, Carlos Argentino Daneri, a poet.
Later in the story, a business on the same street attempts to tear down Daneri's house in the course of its expansion. Daneri becomes enraged, explaining to the narrator that he must keep the house in order to finish his poem, because the cellar contains an Aleph which he is using to write it. Though by now he believes Daneri to be quite insane, the Bourges proposes without waiting for an answer to come to the house and see the Aleph for himself.
Left alone in the darkness of the cellar, Borges begins to fear that Daneri is conspiring to kill him, and then he sees the Aleph for himself. It is then that we discover this notion of magical realism. This idea of real vs.fallacy, time vs. space, and past vs. present. When Borges first encountered the “small iridescent sphere” as he described it, he first thought it was spinning then realized that the movement was a mere illusion. This whole question of whether or not it was spinning, makes the reader wonder if he was driven my imagination and desire of hoping it was there, or, was it really in fact spinning and he was at the mercy of its magic. Throughout the end he goes on a ramble describing everything he can see from the aleph, things such as veins of a metal and cancer in a breast to night and day simultaneously. He can see everything clearly and without any overlaps.
Something that grabbed my attention and immediately placed me within the story, was a line Borges wrote when he was describing his encounter with the Aleph. He said, “saw the aleph from everywhere at once, saw the earth in the Aleph, and the Aleph once more in the earth, and the earth in the Aleph, saw my face, and my viscera, saw your face, and I felt dizzy”. (pg. 284) You almost forget your even reading until he mentions you. The first person narrative serves as a magical realism approach because you are almost sucked right into the story right from the beginning. Seeing the world as Borges sees it, but when he mentions you, you stop and wonder for a second, if he’s really there and if you are? This whole notion of what’s real and what fantasy is is well played out towards the end of the book.
The idea of time is also distributed throughout the story. Borges often referred to the past when it came to Beatriz. Borges will often advert back to the past referring to dates and occasions that Beatriz and him shared. As if in the sense he was holding on to the past.
In my opinion, the title of the short story came from the first paragraph that starts it all. It says, “ the fact deeply grieved me, for I realized that the vast unceasing universe was already growing away from her, and this change was but the first in infinite series.” The term “infinite series” derives from the actual meaning of the Hebrew term “Aleph”. The story ends similarly to the book “Aura” questioning reality from fallacy. What is a mere illusion or hopefulness? or did he really encounter the Aleph and then forgot about it?