This essay argues that Daniel Quinn, the protagonist of Paul Auster’s City of Glass, has a multiple personality reflected by the other characters of the novel as well as by the city. Referring to De Certeau, I will deal with the city as a text which the subject tries to read and write in search of his own identity.
After displaying his relationship to the novel’s most important figures and the way in which his own personality is projected on them, I will show that Quinn himself is a fallen creature: he does not have an identity since the breach between “signifier” and “signified” cannot be overcome, just like in ‘postlapsarian’ language.
At a glance
- Applies Michel de Certeau’s city-as-text approach to New York
- Examines the connection between William Wilson and Edgar Allan Poe’s story
- 14 sources in the bibliography
Table of Contents
0. Introduction
1. Quinn as part of other figures
1.1 Quinn’s fictional characters
1.1.1 Max Work
1.1.2 William Wilson
1.1.3 Other fictional characters – intertextual figures
1.2 Peter Stillman
1.3 Stillman sr.
1.4 Paul Auster
2. Quinn’s fall
2.1 Loss of control
2.1.1. Chance and reality
3. Quinn as part of the city
3.1 The city as a text
3.1.1. Quinn as an author
3.1.2. Quinn as a reader
3.2. Quinn as a ‘postlapsarian’ character
4. Is there a solution?
5. Conclusion
Objectives and Themes
This essay examines how Daniel Quinn’s search for identity in Paul Auster’s City of Glass is reflected in other characters and in New York. It asks how his fractured sense of self relates to language, urban space and the conventions of detective fiction.
- Quinn’s relationships with his invented characters and the Stillmans
- Intertextual references to Edgar Allan Poe and Lewis Carroll
- Trauma, shifting identities and loss of control
- New York as a text to be read and written
- Language, the Fall and the relationship between signifier and signified
- Detective fiction, narrative ambiguity and the search for a solution
Excerpt from the Book
2.1 Loss of control
The traumatic event can be considered the center of Auster’s novel, the point around which the whole story revolves. Before, Quinn could live the utopia of a ‘prelapsarian’ life, but now a split has taken place inside of him separating him from himself and others. The loss of his identity and his search for a new one do not happen abruptly. Instead, the reader can follow a slow but steady process in which the protagonist loses control of himself. The first step in this process, as alluded to several times in this paper, is the adoption of William Wilson’s name and identity. At the same time he ‘becomes’ Max Work whenever he chooses to prevent himself from thinking about his past and the obligation to cope with the pain: “He found it painful to think of that now, and he tried to suppress the pictures that were forming in his head. ‘Look at it through Auster’s eyes,’ he said to himself, ‘and don’t think of anything else.’” (City of Glass 61)
The second step in this process is picking up the phone and presenting himself as Paul Auster, the detective. First, he is aware of what he does. He tries to calculate logically but is carried away by the obsession of solving the “crime” and by “acting out” various identities. Once incident in which it is very obvious that he is losing control occurs at Peter Stillman’s: Quinn does not have any awareness of time, he spends fourteen hours there, although to him it seems as if it had been only a few. It is Peter who initiates the entire confusion and self-alienation: Quinn even starts to talk like him. When Quinn finds himself believing in a secret message, which Stillman has written in the grid of the city, he tries to tell himself that this cannot be real and that it is chance rather than a sign: “This implied only one thing: that he continued to disbelieve the arbitrariness of Stillman’s actions. He wanted there to be a sense to them, no matter how obscure.” (City of Glass 69). This attempt is in vain: Quinn has already lost control. However, he lives in the illusion that he does have control:
As he wandered through the station, he reminded himself of who he was supposed to be. The effect of being Paul Auster, he had begun to learn, was not altogether unpleasant. Although he still had the same body, the same mind, the same thoughts, he felt as though he had somehow been taken our of himself, as if he no longer had to walk around with the burden of his own consciousness. By a simple trick of the intelligence, a deft little twist of naming, he felt incomparably lighter and freer. At the same time, he knew it was all an illusion. But there was a certain comfort in that. He had not really lost himself; he was merely pretending, and he could return to being Quinn whenever he wished. (City of Glass 50, emphasis mine)
Chapter Summaries
0. Introduction: The essay introduces its argument about Quinn’s fragmented identity and its relationship to the novel’s characters, the city and language.
1. Quinn as part of other figures: This chapter examines Quinn’s invented identities and his relationships with the Stillmans and Paul Auster, alongside intertextual figures from other literary works.
2. Quinn’s fall: The chapter traces the effects of bereavement on Quinn and considers his changing identities, loss of control and difficulty distinguishing chance from meaningful clues.
3. Quinn as part of the city: This chapter explores the connection between Quinn and New York, treating the city as a text and considering Quinn as both writer and reader.
4. Is there a solution?: The essay considers the novel’s treatment of detective-story conventions, narrative levels and the reader’s expectations.
5. Conclusion: The conclusion brings together the essay’s interpretations of identity, language, characters and urban space.
Keywords
Paul Auster, City of Glass, Daniel Quinn, identity, postmodernism, detective fiction, New York, intertextuality, urban space, language, signifier and signified, narrative ambiguity, Michel de Certeau
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the essay about?
It is a literary analysis of Daniel Quinn’s search for identity in Paul Auster’s City of Glass.
What are its central themes?
Its themes include fragmented identity, relationships between characters, the city as text, language, intertextuality and detective fiction.
What is the essay’s main objective?
It explores how Quinn’s identity is reflected in other figures and the city, and how his search relates to the separation between signifier and signified.
What method does the author use?
The author offers a literary interpretation of the novel, drawing on textual passages and scholarly discussions of language, identity and urban space.
What does the main analysis cover?
It considers Quinn’s invented characters, his encounters with the Stillmans and Paul Auster, his loss of control, and his relationship with New York.
Which keywords characterize the essay?
Key terms include identity, postmodernism, intertextuality, detective fiction, urban space and language.
How does Edgar Allan Poe enter the discussion?
The essay examines Quinn’s pseudonym William Wilson in relation to Poe’s story of the same name and to the conventions of detective fiction.
Why is New York described as a text?
Drawing on Michel de Certeau, the essay considers how walking through the city can be understood in relation to reading and writing.
What does the essay mean by a postlapsarian character?
It connects Quinn’s fractured identity and changing names to the novel’s concern with language after the Fall and the gap between words and what they signify.
- Citation du texte
- Rafaela Breuer (Auteur), 2005, Searching for identity: The mutual projection of the ‘postlapsarian’ protagonist and his environment in Paul Auster’s "City of Glass", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/91709
