ABSTRACT
Throughout his writings, Paul Auster focuses upon the lack of certainty associated with contemporary life. The majority of Auster’s protagonists are profoundly affected by their reactions to contingent occurrences and cannot dismiss the significance of these random events. The Auster protagonist insists that he or she must seize the opportunity that has been presented. Any other response will result in a dilution of self-worth. The presence of the unexpected often serves as a means of personal salvation. Auster believes that, while chance may determine an individual’s subsequent existence, the ways in which each individual reacts can be rationalized. Auster is opposed to a worldview of prevailing and inexplicable chaos. He asserts that each action influences every subsequent reaction. As they contemplate the direction their lives have taken, the majority of Auster’s fictional creations express a similar viewpoint. Anna Blume, protagonist of In the Country of Last Things, writes:
Our lives are no more than the sum of manifold contingencies, and no matter how diverse they might be in their details, they all share an essential randomness in their design: this then that, and because of that, this1.
