City of Glass
52 pages • 1-hour read
Paul AusterCity of Glass
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of mental illness.
Telephone Calls
From the first line of the novella, “It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night” (3), telephone calls are a motif threaded throughout the narrative. This first telephone call is the plot’s inciting incident, pulling Quinn into the mysteries surrounding the two Peter Stillmans. Telephone calls abound in the novella, becoming Quinn’s primary and, in some cases, only source of connection to the other characters. Following the initial series of calls that bring Quinn into Peter’s case, Quinn interacts with the Stillmans only through telephone conversations with Virginia Stillman. In Chapter 8, when Quinn begins to doubt the validity of Stillman’s threat to Peter, a phone call with Virginia motivates him to continue the investigation and speak to Stillman in person. Moreover, when Quinn can no longer reach Virginia by telephone, he concludes that this is a sign from fate that he has a responsibility to see the case through no matter what. The telephone calls illustrate Quinn’s increasing separation from other people, and this final moment marks Quinn’s final separation from his old life and entry into the isolated, otherworldly streets of New York City, where he can, and does, disappear, connecting this motif to the theme of Invisibility in a Postmodern City.
Quinn’s brief re-emergence into the real world is likewise marked by a telephone call, this time to Paul Auster. Ironically, his phone call to Auster marks a reversal of the dictate Quinn believes he received through his inability to reach Virginia. Auster informs him that Stillman is dead, Peter and Virginia are gone, and his case has, in fact, been over for months. At this point, Quinn’s sense of self fractures completely, leading to his final isolation and disappearance in Chapter 13. Every telephone call that Quinn makes or receives in the novella functions as a turning point through which the narrative moves Quinn from plot point to plot point, with little agency on his part.
The Red Notebook
The red notebook is a symbol of Quinn’s increasingly fragmented sense of identity and purpose. At no point does the narrative refer to the red notebook as “the notebook” or “Quinn’s notebook”; it is always “the red notebook.” Its color is part of what draws Quinn to it in Chapter 5, feeling that it called to him specifically, “as if its unique destiny in the world was to hold the words that came from his pen” (39). The significance of the red notebook intensifies when Quinn notes that Stillman carries one very similar to his own, forming a “secret link between them” that pleases Quinn (59). The red notebook symbolizes Quinn’s connection to and affinity with Stillman, which, in turn, becomes a crucial part of his fragmented identity.
The red notebook symbolizes Quinn’s fragmented identity in other ways as well, particularly in relation to his use of various names and aliases. Quinn writes his own name, Daniel Quinn, in the notebook, rather than his pseudonym William Wilson, the first time he has done so in five years. However, he then immediately separates his identity as Daniel Quinn from the identity of the notebook’s writer, who is chronicling his investigation of Stillman, when he writes in the notebook: “My name is Paul Auster. That is not my real name” (40). This moment echoes Peter’s odd turn of phrase in Chapter 2, when he repeatedly states, “My name is Peter Stillman. […] That is not my real name” (15). It also reveals the way that Quinn uses his red notebook to express and contain the collection of his disparate identities.
Quinn’s mysterious fate in Chapter 13 reinforces the red notebook’s symbolic importance as the container of his identity. Quinn wonders what will happen when he runs out of space to write in the red notebook. As the unknown narrator remarks, he finishes the last line, after which there is no further trace of him. The ending thus implies that Quinn abandons his many identities, or possibly fades away entirely, once he can no longer contain them in the red notebook, revealing Identity as Constructed and Contingent.
Doubles
Doubles of names and characters appear numerous times in City of Glass. Their appearance is a motif that contributes to the postmodern and surreal atmosphere and heightens Quinn’s sense of disorientation and fragmentation. The most physical manifestation of this doubling is the moment Quinn witnesses two versions of Stillman exiting the train station. Despite the absurdity of the situation, Quinn is adamant that he is not mistaken, saying, “[The second man] was the exact twin of Stillman’s” (55). The two Stillmans are the same physically but radically different in clothing and attitude, as if Stillman’s life had split into two possible futures running parallel to each other—the “shabby [and] broken down” version, and the “independent [and] prosperous” version (56).
Additionally, there are several examples of sons and fathers doubling in the narrative. This includes the original two Peter Stillmans, the father and the son, and later the two Daniels, the protagonist and Paul Auster’s son. Quinn also experiences a doubling with his dead son’s name, Peter, and its connection with both of the other sons in the narrative. Later, Paul Auster’s son Daniel reminds him of his own son and makes him bitterly jealous. Quinn also pretends to be Stillman’s son Peter in Chapter 9. Every doubling heightens Quinn’s disorientation, creating a sense of paranoia, fragmentation, and distortion that is a common feature in postmodern literature.
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