The theme of "Rosendo's Tale," by Jorge Luis Borges, is maturity through self-realization. Rosendo states this idea directly as he's still introducing the story: "Things happen to you and it's only years later you begin understanding them." Rosendo's thoughts and actions change several times throughout the story, but he only completely matures at the end of the story. Borges uses flashback and symbolism to enhance Rosendo's statement and to foreshadow his realization.
The entire story is presented in flashback form. In general, this gives the reader a feeling of looking back at situations, an important feeling to the theme. This also allows Rosendo to remark about his own actions. When he kills Garmendia, Rosendo explains "Fool that I was, I went and slipped off that fancy ring of his that he always wore with the nice stone in it." His account is far from objective; he clearly regards some of his actions as careless. Rosendo's tone toward his own actions prior to his revelation shows his naivety. Don Nicolas sweeps him up into the world of crime and Rosendo never really has a say in any of it. His interjections into his own narrative foreshadow his eventual realization that this life isn't for him. When the police officer offers him a choice between working for Don Nicolas and the penitentiary, he replies that he"d have to think about it, interjecting with "As you can probably imagine, I didn't understand." He had not been exposed yet to the world of crime. The way Rosendo phrases this interjection implies that he would have reacted differently to the situation in his current status. Perhaps he would have chosen the penitentiary after all. Either way, the reader can infer that what he didn't understand then, he now does. This element of flashback contributes to the foreshadowing of Rosendo's realization and promotes the theme of understanding situations only after maturing.
