Jihad Taha

English/ City of Glass analysis

2011

The novel City Of Glass is a novel written by the famous writer Paul Auster who is known for his for works, mixing existentialism, crime fiction and the search for identity and personal meaning in his works. But The New York Trilogy, which includes City of Glass, might probably be the most famous of all. Its events are about a detective writer who ends up being in a detective story himself. It happens to be about this one writer who feels like hes not where he should be and at last ends up awakening from this bad dream, which turns out to be true. Taking the reader through a mysterious, mind breaking, but nevertheless much interesting novel, Paul Auster manages once again in raising the question of Who are we? and What are we here for? In this analysis, I will approach the novel from a subjective way, talking about the characters, their behavior, and their thoughts in addition to their importance in figuring out the meaning of the whole novel. I will also be talking about the different points of views which, at first sight, might seem too twisted and mixed together. Then Ill be dealing with the genre of the novel and its implications. And at last, I will take some other works into perspective and see what themes are common among them. City of Glass is a novel about a writer called Daniel Quinn. Quinn was a thirty-five year old man who had once been married and had a child but his wife and child had died. He wrote mystery novels for which he had a passion, read books, looked at paintings, and went to the movies. He

Jihad Taha

English/ City of Glass analysis

2011

used to publish a book every 5 or 6 months which made it possible for him to live a comfortable life. From the beginning of the novel, Quinn is a mysterious person who lives a part of his life in the past. He has changed his name to William Wilson to forget about his past life, his deceased family and his friends. He has created this new character and lives with a bit of admiration towards it. Throughout the whole novel, he goes through lots of events that invert the world he is living in. He himself becomes a character within a real story. In it, he becomes the detective and its his responsibility to solve the case. He gets to meet Peter Stillman Jr. who seems to be facing a lot of trouble since his birth. He also meets Stillmans beautiful wife who seems a bit mysterious. Here he represents himself as Paul Auster, just as the caller had expected. He then, as the events escalade, finds himself trapped inside a big story. Stillmans father, Peter Stillman Sr., is a religious theologian, who tests some old rituals involving isolating young children in dark room which will lead to them speaking the language of God. After investigating and interviewing Peter Stillman Jr., who has clearly lost his mind, Quinn, or Auster, as hes know at this point, finds himself trying to solve a weird case. He succeeds in locating Stillman Sr. and follows him over a long period of time. After having a discussing with him he manages to lose him again and therefore loses hope. After some time thinking and meeting the real Paul Auster (Not the true writer but the character) he re-obtains his determination and places himself inside an alley just outside the Stillmans house. He adapts a new way of living there, depending on his determination, his small amount of money, and some luck. He starts looking like a wild man, just like Robinson Crusoe. It then turns out that the family has left and that Stillman Sr. has committed suicide. He then lives in a struggle between finding himself, his real identity, his place in the universe, his role Another possibility could be that this character never had any presence in the story, and the only proof that hes not fake is the red notebook which we dont know who wrote. The second character in the novel is Peter Stillman Jr. He is the one who calls Daniel Quinn in the first place asking for a Paul Auster and when Quinn stops hesitating and replies that hes Paul Auster, Stillman gets excited over finally finding him. He then invites him over to discuss a serious topic. When Quinn arrives, Stillman talks for several hours. He talks and talks and keeps talking. He says a lot of things but at the same time he isnt saying anything. His sentences are weird. As if he has a mental disorder and that might be whats wrong with him. As a child, he was left alone in a dark room without any form of physical contact with other people. Alone in a dark

Jihad Taha

English/ City of Glass analysis

2011

room. And that might have had some consequences on his behavior. He is afraid his father might seek revenge because of him being the cause why his father was in jail. Although he might seem crazy at times, he also seems to be calm. The third character is Stillmans Jr. wife, Virginia. She is a beautiful, mischievous, and clever woman. She used to be a volunteer at the place where Stillman Jr. was inlaid and where he was being treated. She later married him because of her developing emotions and feelings towards him. She is probably the person who made Stillman Jr. make the call to Quinn. As she later tells Quinn, she is the one who has told Stillman Jr. about his father and the story about him being locked away, alone. Although she is Peters wife, Quinn keeps having some suspicions about her and her role in all this mess. The fourth character is Peter Stillman Sr. who has been locked away in prison for several years because of his experiment with his child. He also seems to be a calm person and when Quinn manages to talk to him, and convince him that he, Quinn, is his son, Stillman Sr. believes him and start having a long discussion about life, family, kids, and being honest. This incident, where Jr. expresses his happiness towards his son and him being proud, might be the event which makes Sr. commit suicide although its not definite. His role in the novel might be limited but its effects are great, especially on Quinn. The fifth character is Paul Auster who plays a small role in this novel. He is the person who Peter Stillman Jr. called for in the first place but because of a problem with the phone lines, his line had been swapped with Quinns. He is also a writer and has read some Quinns novels. He gets informed about the whole case and starts helping Quinn out in solving it by giving advises and drawing out conclusions. But when Quinn suddenly disappears, he starts getting worried but dont get out and start looking for him or call the police. He just keeps on calling Quinns phone but gets no answer. Hes also the one who informs Quinn about Stillman Sr.s suicide. The fifth and last character is the narrator. Although he/she doesnt look like being a part of the story, he appears in the end (more precisely page 132). He has just returned from a trip to Africa and calls his friend Auster who urges him to come over. After getting the whole story, he blames Auster for being careless to Quinn. He then thinks of the only place where Quinn could be; Stillman Jr.s house. There they find an empty house and in one of the dark rooms they find only a

Jihad Taha

English/ City of Glass analysis

2011

red notebook where Quinn, as it turns out, has jointed all his last ideas, feelings, thoughts and emotions down. Paul Auster, the writer, has used some expressions and symbols in his novel which are worth mentioning. The whole novel is about this private eye called Daniel Quinn or DQ, and this private eye thing becomes present in Quinns life as the story evolves. The private eye has 3 or even 4 different meanings in the story. First of all, its another word for detective, and its known that Quinn saw himself as a detective story-writer and as a potential real-life detective. Another meaning could be the I reflecting the story surrounding talking about the I in the story, how to create ones own identity, the breathing self. The third meaning could be the eye of the writer. That he sees everything. And thats one of a private detectives duty; to keep an eye on anything and everything.1 The uncertainty of identity is also present in this novel. The difficultness of being able to define the self the I. this is reflected when: Auster saw the yo-yo in his hand and said, I see youve already met Daniel. he said to the boy, This is Daniel And then to Quinn, with that same ironic smile, Daniel, this is Daniel. The boy burst out laughing and said, Everybodys Daniel! Thats right. said Quinn, Im you and youre me. Auster seems to be suggesting that his son, Daniel is also Daniel Quinn. Auster the writer is creator of both his son and Quinn. Paradoxically, Quinn the writer created Paul Auster, each one is the father of the other. However the Paul Auster created by Quinn is head of a detective agency and therefore a potentially different Paul Auster. The novel, City of Glass, is a very interesting but very confusing novel. Its characterized by its many stories within other stories which make up spirals inside each other. One characters starts it all. Then he gets involved in another characters own story who in turn is in another ones story and so it goes on.

On page 72, the writer targeted my attention to the word El which was the ancient Hebrew for God. It might have been the writers intention in making us believe that, at some point, Quinn believed that he was God.

Jihad Taha

English/ City of Glass analysis

2011

It is just as complicated as the 8 oscar nominated movie, Inception2 which also happens to be about entering other peoples stories, but here with a different perspective. Here it is the actors own choice in entering other peoples minds, and extracting information from within their consciousness, and then buying these detailed information to their enemies. In city of glass its a very closely related. But, here its not Quinn own choice (although this can be discussed) but fate or life thats responsible for him being involved in several stories at the same time. Another movie which also resembles Paul Austers City of Glass, is Smoke directed by both, Wayne Wang, and, ironically, Paul Auster. In this movie, which happens to be shot in a cigar shop, the characters take on different names and different stories which are related to other characters in the movie, thus creating stories within stories and circles within circles, just like City of Glass. The novel City of Glass is a must-read novel. It contains many aspects of different peoples life and how they react towards different situations. Its a novel which takes about the human identity in a modern world. And its a novel which makes the reader think about the two questions: who are we? and what are we here for?. But the answer is not so obvious and thats where the readers story come in.

2010