English 15 [literary theory]

Professor Boggs
07.09.2006
[nick williams]

A Structuralist Reading of Borges’ The Intruder (La Intruda)

Borges’ The Intruder is not a straightforward fictional tale. The first paragraph

in the text frames the story by alluding to its telling and retelling, its slight

distortions, its history. The first two words of the (English) text, “People say. . .”

invoke the legendary and popular nature of the story and the relative insignificance

of the author. It is further positioned in the real world, as if more fact than fiction,

by the reference to “those hard-bitten men living on the edge of Buenos Aires before

the turn of the century.” This conjures up for the reader certain reference points in

the real, non-literary, world. Whether the reader knows anything about “those hard-

bitten men” or even Buenos Aires, this invocation puts the following story in a

structural framework. The story is even further ‘factualized’ by the narrator claiming

it is slightly distorted or modified each time it is told (implying that there is a factual

story from which to deviate) and that he will undoubtedly “give in to the writer’s

temptation of emphasizing or adding certain details.” These modifications to the

story are essentially changes in structure rather than changes in plot or characters.

We need not to have heard the story before to know this. After this structural

introduction, the story is told in full.

Upon close reading of The Intruder there appear a number of binary

oppositions that serve to highlight, as parallels, the central opposition. The narrator

draws attention to the differences between the original story and the text that has

survived through him. There is a simultaneous presence of religion and immorality in

the brothers’ lives. The references to “a worn Bible with a dark binding,” Juliana’s
“glass-bead rosary and the tiny crucifix her mother had left her” and “Cain” call to

our attention the omnipresence of religion and its paraphernalia despite the intrusion

of alcohol, gambling, whore-houses and criminal behavior into these men’s lives.

There is a contrast between the Nilsen brothers, “living on the edge of Buenos Aires,”

and the people living within the city. There is briefly mentioned a distinction between

the brothers and “the rest of the toughs who gave the Costa Brava its unsavory

reputation,” and even a contrast between Argentina and abroad (p. 162). There was

something that set the Nilsen brothers apart from other people, Argentines, the

other “hard-bitten men” and, eventually, even each other.

All the “intruders” mentioned above (the modifications of the text, immorality,

the brothers themselves, their foreign lineage) share something else in common.

They are all in some way hidden, unrecognized or surprising. The tellings of the story

are “more elaborate” or certain details are changed each time, but it is not revealed

what is changed. Thievery, drinking, gambling, and “carousing with women” were all

regular events in the lives of the Nilsens, but they were in some ways hidden. They

kept their drinking and gambling to the “corner saloon” or at home, and their

“amorous escapades had always been carried out in darkened passageways or in

whorehouses.” Even the criminal behavior that supported them was hidden. No one

could threaten or combat them, and all knew that “to fall out with one of them was

to reckon with two enemies.” The brothers were likely of foreign descent, “tall . . .

and wore their red hair long. Denmark or Ireland . . . ran in the blood of these two

Argentine brothers.” But the brothers were not aware of it, and “probably never

heard of” Denmark or Ireland.

The final and central contrast that all this parallels in The Intruder is that

between Juliana Burgos, the intrudess, and the two brothers, Cristián and Eduardo,

between romantic and fraternal love. Before Juliana entered their lives the Nilsens

kept their love affairs private and separate, hidden. Cristián brings Juliana home, as
a slave who “attended both men’s wants with an animal submission.” Cristián

encouraged this to keep Juliana from distancing the brothers, as Eduardo had

become jealous and “in love with Cristián’s woman.” Cristián made no attempt to

hide Juliana from the public as he adorned her with “the most hideous junk jewelry”

and took to “showing her off at parties.” But between the two brothers she remained

ignored. They “never mentioned her name” and would argue about “the sale of some

hides” to avoid arguing over Juliana. When the decision is made to remove the

intrusion from their lives and sell Juliana back to the whorehouse the brothers both

secretly see her. The eventual murder of their mistress had the power to either bring

them closer or drive them apart, just as Juliana had in life. “One more link bound

them now,” but would the be able to forget her?