Peter Stillman Reflection

I have always considered myself to be an introvert as I prefer to listen to others than converse in front of a sizable audience. Since grade school, I had always been told by my teachers to present my ideas and participate often in class discussions. Sometimes, I used to like expressing my thoughts during a in class discussion but I soon learned than this was more often dependant on the topic that was being discussed. Sometime around the end of my junior year I had perfected the topics that interested me and had almost told myself to shutdown during class discussions that revolved around a specific topic which I did not like. Most of the topics that I rarely shared my thoughts about were connected to our society and its cultural values. Since

He had always been fascinated by the fictional character he created through his novels and after the call from Peter Stillman he felt as though he could possibly relive the role of William Wilson in his life. He was so interested in his case and determined to solve the mystery that he sacrificed everything he had. This was in many ways his one chance to prove himself that he can live a different lifestyle and that he didn’t need to constantly worry about his past. According to Auster, “It was as though he had melted into the walls of the city...Quinn had always thought of himself as a man who liked to be alone...he began to understand the nature of solitude...it did not seem to make sense” (Auster 111). In this quote we can see that due to Quinn’s nature of solitude he had lost grip of himself, he knew that this was probably his last chance to prove himself that he can become someone else with a purpose in life unlike Daniel Quinn. Quinn liked to be alone and in many ways he took pride of it. By saying “he began to understand the nature of solitude” Auster is telling us that this is the first time Quinn is getting to understand himself. As Quinn waits outside Stillman 's house he is for the first time met with a purpose that he must follow but this purpose is also making him sacrifice his humanity. By saying “he had melted into the

Some could argue that it is possible to change your social role in society and thereby altering your identity. But I still think that most people understand the value of these social norms and their importance only when they are taken away from them. For example, Quinn could have been a successful detective had it not have been for the way he approached the case but even then I don’t think he could have been able to cope with his family’s death effectively. In this case, the author/narrator says at the end that Quinn, “will always be with myself” (Auster 138). Here the author tells us that Quinn has disappeared and while I think that Quinn as the character does disappear, maybe Daniel Quinn emerges as someone else. By saying “he will always be with myself,” we can assume that he is part of the author/narrator, in which case he is able to become the writer that he once was. Since his wife and son died, and before the case with the Stillmans began, he wrote only as William Wilson. In those five years, Quinn had stopped being an author, and had already started to fade away: “Quinn was no longer that part of himself that could write books, and although in many ways Quinn continued to exist, he no longer existed for anyone but himself” (Auster 9). Here we can also assume that when he starts to write the case in the red notebook, he starts to exist as an author again. So, while it is true that Quinn