“the Gospel According to Mark” Analysis

“The Gospel According to Mark” Analysis

In the short story “The Gospel According to Mark,” by Jorge Luis Borges, Balarasar Espinosa is a 33 year old man whose actions throughout the story are kindhearted mirroring Jesus Christ’s nature. The author gives us many examples of Espinosa’s good nature; the author also provides examples that reveal Espinosa is not completely a perfect holy being. Espinosa arrives at his cousin’s ranch and a series of events begin take place with the Gutres, that lead up to them mistaking Espinosa’s identity with that of Jesus Christ’s. Espinosa’s mistaken Christ like identity ultimately leads to his Christ like demise by the hands of the Gutres as suggested by the author in the final paragraph of the story.

Two of the well known attributes of Jesus was obedience and diligence, and Espinosa was obedient to his mother’s request of prayer and diligently prayed every night. The first of the events is that Espinosa kept his promise to his mother about prayer. “his mother asked him to say the Lord’s Prayer every night and make the sign of the cross, and never in all the years that followed did he break that promise.” (Borges 124) This is the only time in the short story that the author mentions anything about Espinosa praying, but it is an important as part of developing his Christ like character in the beginning of the story. His vow to keep his promise to his mother and pray every night is relevant to Christ like actions. Keeping his faithful promise and prayer exemplifies Christ.

Espinosa growing his beard out depicts him to have a more Christ like and or biblical facial appearance. “Espinosa, who was letting his beard grow out, would stop before the mirror to look at his changed face.” (Borges 126) The well known Christian depiction of Jesus Christ is always an image of Jesus with a beard. Jesus was a Jewish man and Jewish men during his time around 2,000 years grew beards, and still do today. Mostly all of the men in the Bible...