Analysis of Emma Zunz - The Protagonist of Jorge Luis Borges

As I read the beginning of Emma Zunz I instantly felt the shock of the situation or disaster if you will. The first paragraph focused only on the fact that her father had suddenly died. The subtle hint by writing “by a certain fein o fain” which translated is someone who would rather not be named instantly creates mystery. The idea of fowl play precedes this. Questions in my head appear, such as “why did he not want to be named”, “how does one ingest veronal by mistake?” And if it was a suicide as it infers later on, why did Señor Maiers companion from the boarding house not just disclose that in the letter rather than implying it an accident.

Overview of the Short Story

The setting of the short story is in 1922 in the textile mills, and when looking back in history Emma would’ve been working in poor conditions. For very little pay, besides from the economy at that time, being a woman in those working environments couldn’t be ideal regarding pay or. respect. I feel later on the text, this would give more ambition and motive to avenge her fathers death. [often as a woman, being aggravated by a certain situation, that itself isn’t only what angers us, its all that connects to that. More so by a man and the inequality in daily life that attaches to that. Emma seems to be struggling from oppression, sexism and a mental state often altered by the way she as a 19 year old woman is treated. I for one cannot imagine living in that era and being okay. Burges creates a major impact in the fact that he has made her the hero breaking through her struggles. And her shame.

Analysis and Review of the Character of Emma Zunz

When reading that the protagonist was a female, I was taken aback. Often woman are lacking in fiction and stories where there is a situation that needs to be sorted out. If there are female represented as hero’s, villains or portrayed as evil it often comes down to them being evil in different ways. Such as being compelled or restricted by their womanhood, by being mothers to their kids, married to their partners, angry or jealous for a man betraying them. Even when a woman is the villain they are always held down by the sexist or stereotypical limits of the gender which is female. It is said that in history woman are portrayed less as the protagonists or heroes. And as Jorge Luis Borges instantly jumps to Emma being the focus, he implements change, equality and we as the readers know she will be the saviour of the disaster to come.

In the second paragraph my expectations are altered of what I imagined the short story to be. The passage is very different in effect, with the speech being more descriptive and there being more emotive language. Creating a sense of what she is feeling, her actions prior to reading the news that will haunt her for the rest of her life. At the same time of feeling her pain and sadness, we also feel her anger and the build up to her blow up. Almost playing on the heartstrings of the reader. I find emotive language such as “her first sentiment was indisposition in her stomach and knees”. She felt discomfort, illness in her, uneasiness about what she’d now know, yet the cause being difficult to identify. She felt it all. “she felt blind, guilt, unreality, cold, fear.” While reading this emotive sentence I wondered why she felt guilt. The questions “is that why she becomes so determined to avenge the death?” And “why does she feel guilt?”. This to me now portrayed her as a sort of villain. With her father dying, surely guilt would only arise from something she is holding, something inside of her that angers her, her past actions towards her father, and now the question is, what is it?

In the beginning Emma Zunz appears to be the character that suffers more than any other action. She also seems to have some mental instability, with her irrational actions that play out as the story goes on swell as her intense emotions that drive her to feel that way. Her brain wiring seems sensitive and everything she feels is heightened. She acts compulsively, and the way Borges describes a;; her feelings so deeply and powerfully heightens the notion that her mind is something of a pathological state. Through research I have found that in fact Borges short story Emma Zuni was well motivated and written with the basis of the Freudian theory of psychoanalysis. Which explains why Emma’s subconscious, her conscious and psychological insights are greatly magnified throughout the story. Infant Emma Zunz was the first of this kind that Borges had wrote. She acts The way Jorge writes emotively about her emotions and state of mind creates a sense of her being the focus of drama and negativity within the short story. In paragraph to it writes “this wish was useless because her fathers death was the only thing that had happened in the world and that would keep happening without end” and at this point you cant help but expect her to feel revenge. This sentence itself shows that her father was a very big part of her life, it describes why her emotions would be so strong, and if this is the only thing that would keep on happening, surely the tragedy would change her plan of action. She now seems more ambitious, she will not sit around and mourn, she will get up and avenge.

Yet everything that is said about him is in a negative connotation. “Who could not have known that he was addressing his daughter” seems instantly suspicious. And that being the first action described of the man, doesn’t set him in the readers’ eyes as a hero, but more as a downward slope of evil/vilian.

Emma’s father had changed his name to Manuel Maier after previously being framed by the man who he was acquainted with, Aaron Loewenthal. I cannot help but wonder if she from the beginning thought this man was the reason her father had passed. Is that why she felt so angry? Not only had Manuel been stabbed in the back once by this man, but twice. And now, never again.

Loewenthal had covered up his own embezzlement fraud by framing Emma’s father, that in itself enough to make any one filled with rage. If we could be in her mind, he would be the ultimate suspect. He did not have to physically kill Manuel with his bear hands, but driving him to take his own life is just as horrifying.

By killing her own employer I wonder how she felt. Did the avenging take every bit of pain away? Did firing a gun at the man who caused so much turmoil bring peace with the death of Manuel? Or was it just an irrational decision from a mind that is in pieces?

Conclusion

The protagonist of Jorge Luis Borges Emma Zunz was a smart, empathetic, and sensitive young adult. She took the whole world on her shoulders. As a female reader I do empathise with her. I can only imagine what years of sexual abuse, oppression and division could do to a woman, what else was she to do? Than prove her strength to herself, and to her father.