The Invention of Solitude

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster is a page-turner to say the least. The surprising ride Auster delivered covers a range of literary and critical topics. I expected it to more or less follow the expectable twists, turns, and general direction of the genre I believed it to take part in. What I got was something different. It seems to me like in all three trilogies, “City of Glass”, “Ghost”, and the final trilogy “Locked room”. All have a similarity of losing someone. In the first trilogy “City of Glass” Quinn loses a wife and a son. In the second story “Ghost” Blue sees his fiancé with another man. In the last trilogy “Locked room” Sophie loses Fanshawe due to his disappearance. And in the end of the story Fanshawe is presumed dead. So the reader is left with an open-ended theory. What I find in The New York Trilogy is writers who get caught up in strange mysteries. The characters of this novel all seem to be writing stories, letters, poems, or reports of their investigations. Despite their writing enthusiasm. They seem to get lost within their own writing. In “The Locked room”, the protagonist plunges into the life of his best friend pretending to be him and adopting his son, and writing books using his name. Three complex novels, not easy to follow and that leave a sense of anguish and strong confusion. So many obscure spots, perhaps left to let the reader interpret the interpretation. The three novels seem independent, but they have common conductive themes and create…

his previous identity. The narrator reveals the consequences of his incessant dedication to ridding himself of his past with the acknowledgement that Wade “tried to pull off a trick that couldn't be done, which was to remake himself, to vanish what was past and replace it with things good and new. He should've known better. Should've lifted it out of the act. Never given the fucking show in the first place” (234). By attempting to rewrite his past, Wade traps himself in a position in which his…

Hundred Years of Solitude, Jose Arcadio Buendia and Jose Arcadio Segundo enter extreme solitude throughout the novel. Jose Arcadio Buendía, one of the first Buendias, goes into solitude because he is constantly searching for the answers to everything. After the gypsies arrived in Macondo; “that spirit of social initiative disappeared in a short time, pulled away by the fever of magnets, the astronomical calculations, the dreams of transmutation, and the urge to discover the wonders of the…

fixate on his inventions, up until his dying day. Thus far, the word “solitary” is used to describe Colonel Aureliano Buendia, more than any other character. His brother Jose Arcadio, deserted him as a child, his father abandoned him for his own self indulged projects, and he tragically loses, who I believe to be, the love of his life. A sad Aureliano, takes off to war, to distance himself from the pain of his surroundings. Upon his returns, he isolates himself with little to no emotion. The…

isolated from the outside world in his small town. After José Arcadio Buendía discovers how a music box works, “he stop[s] eating. He stop[s] sleeping. Only the vigilance and care of Rebeca [keeps] him from being dragged off by his imagination” (76). In comparison to the other characters in Márquez’s novel, José Arcadio Buendía is the only one who becomes completely enthralled with technology and desires to learn how inventions work.…

when being allowed the privacy and freedom they need to strive. Cain felt the need to argue this because introverts are being made to groupthink when in fact they work better and feel more comfortable alone. Studies by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist state “And the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted” (Cain pg.15). The larger issue of the topic Cain tried to argue is that solitude is crucial for creativity and learning. This topic…

Anthem is about a young boy named Equality 7-2521 who is seen as an outcast and sinner in his society. Equality 7-2521 lives in a post-modern society where the citizens are forbidden to say the word “I” and everything must be done as a brotherhood. They have none of the modern inventions that we do, the only one they have is the candle. Single thoughts and actions are seen as sins in this society, as everyone must look and act the same. Equality 7-2521 is very different from his brothers, he…

After stepping into university, each student deserves the opportunity to pursue their education for a major achieving a higher level and successful career. For this reason, each student should pay attention on the methods that instruct them to effectively use the time and materials wisely and the experience that are distinct to everyone in university. In “Self-Fashioning in Society and Solitude,” Nunnerl O. Keohane suggests that personal development and improvement require each student to…

In the novella, Anthem, written by Ayn Rand. There are two major destinations, The Uncharted Forest and the City that everyone lives in. The City is the only place that anyone in that world has ever known. They’ve heard of the Uncharted Forest but as a scare tactic or in the history their world. These two places are completely different. One has a jungle mangy like feel and the other is sophisticated and orderly. In the City, everyone follows their rules and puts the group before themselves.…

bring his invention of the light bulb in front of the Council of Scholars because he thinks it can benefit the life of his fellow brothers, he says, “We, Equality 7-2521, have discovered a new power of nature. And we have discovered it alone, and we are alone to know it” (Rand 52). This demonstrates that Equality 7-2521 has learned something alone and he is the only person who knows how to build this invention. That goes against all aspects of his civilization and the Council of Scholars are…