"The Dead Man" (original Spanish title: "El Muerto") is a short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. It was first published in the magazine Sur (#145) in November 1946 and appears in the 1949 short story collection The Aleph.
The story deals with the life of a young compadrito from Buenos Aires, Benjamín Otálora, who has killed a man and must leave the country. He heads for Uruguay with a letter of introduction for Azevedo Bandeira, a local caudillo. While searching for this Bandeira, he participates in a knife fight and blocks a lethal blow intended for the man he discovers later to be Bandeira himself. Having earned Bandeira's trust and gratitude, Otálora joins his band of gaucho smugglers. Little by little, Otálora becomes more greedy and ambitious, taking more risks, making more decisions, and befriending Bandeira's body guard, Ulpiano Suárez, to whom he reveals his secret plan to take Bandeira's place as leader of the group. The plan is the result of his desire to possess Bandeira's most important symbols of power: his horse, his saddle, and his woman with the bright red hair. One day, after a skirmish with a rival band of Brazilians, Otálora is wounded and on that day, he rides Bandeira's horse back to the ranch, spills blood on the saddle, and sleeps with the woman. The end of the story occurs on New Year's Eve in 1894 when, after a day of feasting and drinking, at the stroke of Midnight, Bandeira summons his mistress and brutally forces her to kiss Otálora in front of all the men. As Suárez aims his pistol, Otálora realizes before he dies that he had been set up from the very beginning and that he had been permitted the pleasure of power and triumph because in the end, to Bandeira, he never was anything more than a soon-to-be dead man.
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dead, short, story, this, article, does, cite, sources, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, dead, short, story, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, october, 2. This article does not cite any sources Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources The Dead Man short story news newspapers books scholar JSTOR October 2011 Learn how and when to remove this template message The Dead Man original Spanish title El Muerto is a short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges It was first published in the magazine Sur 145 in November 1946 and appears in the 1949 short story collection The Aleph The Dead Man Short story by Jorge Luis BorgesOriginal titleEl MuertoCountryArgentinaLanguageSpanishGenre s Fantasy short storyPublicationPublication typeAnthologyMedia typePrintPublication dateNovember 1946Plot summary editThe story deals with the life of a young compadrito from Buenos Aires Benjamin Otalora who has killed a man and must leave the country He heads for Uruguay with a letter of introduction for Azevedo Bandeira a local caudillo While searching for this Bandeira he participates in a knife fight and blocks a lethal blow intended for the man he discovers later to be Bandeira himself Having earned Bandeira s trust and gratitude Otalora joins his band of gaucho smugglers Little by little Otalora becomes more greedy and ambitious taking more risks making more decisions and befriending Bandeira s body guard Ulpiano Suarez to whom he reveals his secret plan to take Bandeira s place as leader of the group The plan is the result of his desire to possess Bandeira s most important symbols of power his horse his saddle and his woman with the bright red hair One day after a skirmish with a rival band of Brazilians Otalora is wounded and on that day he rides Bandeira s horse back to the ranch spills blood on the saddle and sleeps with the woman The end of the story occurs on New Year s Eve in 1894 when after a day of feasting and drinking at the stroke of Midnight Bandeira summons his mistress and brutally forces her to kiss Otalora in front of all the men As Suarez aims his pistol Otalora realizes before he dies that he had been set up from the very beginning and that he had been permitted the pleasure of power and triumph because in the end to Bandeira he never was anything more than a soon to be dead man nbsp This article about a fantasy short story or stories published in the 1940s is a stub You can help Wikipedia by expanding it vte Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title The Dead Man short story amp oldid 1217673075, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
