The Death and the Compass

"The Death and the Compass" by Jorge Luis Borges is a short story about a detective who investigates a series of murders linked by symbolic clues. Believing in rational logic and pattern recognition, he tries to outsmart the murderer, but his assumptions lead him into a trap. The story explores themes of fate, the limits of knowledge, and how overconfidence in logic can blind us to deeper realities. Ultimately, it reveals that what appears to be a logical pattern may hide chaos, and that human understanding is often incomplete when confronting the mysteries of life.