A Study Of The Absurdity Of The New York Trilogy From The Perspective Of Existentialism

Paul Auster,a famous contemporary American writer,who has multiple identities such as novelist,poet,playwright,translator,and film director.He is regarded as one of the most innovative novelists in contemporary America.His The New York Trilogy published in 1987,which including three medium-length novel of The City of Glass,The Ghost,The Locked Room.As a milestone of his literary career,was widely praised by the domestic literary circle.New York Trilogy is not a traditional detective novel,the author Paul Auster,built the tension of gothic style in the story,and set up one after another suspense,which is an exploratory journey to pursue the identity and meaning of existence with the author.This thesis aims to study the absurdity of New York Trilogy from the perspective of existentialism by studying the plot,character identity,theme and other aspects of the work,with combining the three aspects of existentialism philosophy: “existence precedes essence”,“others are hell”,and “free choice”.This thesis will be divided into three parts,introduction,main body and conclusion.The content is as follows:First of all,the introduction will summarize the current research status of The New York Trilogy at home and abroad,then briefly describe the life and writing career of the author Paul Auster as well as the story of the New York Trilogy,and finally discuss the existentialism and absurdity of the work in combination with the story plots.In the body,it contains three chapters:The first chapter is based on the outline of “existence before essence” in existentialism philosophy,and systematically studies the absurd behaviors of the characters in the book.As the external world is full of contingency,different characters in the story make absurd life choices when facing complex survival dilemmas,which makes their identities difficult to confirm.The protagonists in the story constantly doubt about their own identity and perseverely pursue the meaning of their own existence,which makes the loss and pursuit become the eternal absurd features in this novel.The second chapter mainly studies the absurdity of the relationship between the characters in the story with the foundation of “others are hell” in existentialist philosophy.In The City of Glass,the protagonist Quinn accidentally received a call that was not called to him,and since then,he has become entangled in the lives of Peter Stillman and his son,and even finally lost his home.In The Ghost,private detective Blue received a call from White to employee him to track Black,Blue invested all his energy in this matter,even became isolated,his future wife also left him,but finally found that his client turned out to be Black,whom he had been following all along,this incident completely changed his life.In The Locked Room,I was trusted by Fanshawe to look after his widow and to deal with his property.After everything was settled,“I”found that Fanshawe himself was not dead.In these three stories,the relationship between the characters is intricate,and the three protagonists,the author and the protagonists are inextricably linked.The plot,identity of the characters and theme all show the characteristics of absurdity.The third chapter is based on the “free choice” in existentialist philosophy,it explores the absurd representation behind it.Free choice is closely related to the social responsibility of human beings.However,the protagonists in the story sacrifice the will of others for their own freedom,which makes the ending of the story full of absurdity.The last part of this thesis is the summary part,which will state the practical and theoretical significance of this thesis.The study of the absurdity of New York Trilogy from the perspective of existentialism enables readers to further understand what the author intended to express in the novel is that through the description of the plot and the characterization of the characters,the unremitting pursuit of self-value and the meaning of life,and the struggle against the absurd world hidden under the surface of the absurd.