29 pages 58 minutes read

Jorge Luis Borges

The Book of Sand

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1975

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Essay Topics

1.

Since the Book of Sand is not readable, why does it hold so much value to the two characters in the story? Even with infinite pages, how can an unreadable book be powerful? Does Borges’s blindness when he wrote this story affect his exploration of the book’s power?

2.

If you came across the Book of Sand, what would you do with it? Could you imagine becoming obsessed, as the narrator does, or would you try to destroy it? Why or why not? How does the book derive its power?

3.

How could the book be used or deployed in a political or social conflict? How does it disrupt the balance of power between two individuals or belief systems?

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