Escape

Escape is an important theme in the novel City of Glass by Paul Auster. The theme is connected to the theme of identity, as Daniel Quinn, the main character, tries to escape his identity in various ways.

At the beginning of the novel, Quinn describes New York as a place where you can easily lose yourself and forget who you are (Chapter 1, 13%). This shows Quinn’s need to escape, which is also reflected in the mystery novels that he writes under a different name.

When Quinn takes on the identity of Paul Auster, one of the benefits according to him is the opportunity to escape who he is. Quinn no longer has to think about his past, because that is not Paul Auster’s past:

Although he still had the same body, the same mind, the same thoughts, he felt as though he had somehow been taken out of himself, as if he no longer had to walk around with the burden of his consciousness. By a simple trick of the intelligence, a deft little twist of naming, he felt incomparably lighter and freer. (Chapter 7, 0%)

The same sensation is echoed later when Quinn looks at a picture of Nantucket. At first, he can only remember that he ...