Music Of Chance Existentialism

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Leo de la Garza 02/02/11 IB English 2 A Existentialism in The Music of Chance. Existentialism is the philosophical point of view which argues that happiness can only be achieved by accepting one’s mortality. Sartre expands on the existentialist concept in his short story entitled The Wall in which he talks about many fundamental topics of existentialism. However, this philosophical point of view has not only influenced Sartre, but other authors as well, including Paul Auster. In his novel The Music of Chance, Auster makes constant reference to common themes in existentialism, such as “the Leap of Faith” and “ Bad Faith”. The concept of the “Leap of Faith” is basic to the existentialist philosophy. It consists of one taking a great risk while doing something, with no reason logical reason to do it. In Sartre’s The Wall, the main character takes a leap of faith in the end of the story by claiming that the revolutionary leader that he is following is hiding in a cemetery, instead of revealing his true location. By making this statement to his captors, the main character risks his own life, but shows no apparent reason to do so. However, Sartre makes an irony out of this situation, for at the end of the story, the cemetery to which the main character led his enemies to, was indeed the place where the revolutionary leader was hiding, resulting in the leader’s death. In a similar, perhaps alluding way, Auster includes the Leap of Faith in his novel. The main character in his novel, Nashe, takes a Leap of Faith two times in the development of the novel. The first Leap of Faith Nashe takes is when he meets Pozzi. When the two characters meet, Nashe finds himself in a situation in which he can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. He has been wondering the highways of the U.S. disregarding the fact that eventually he would run out of money, and thus his
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