A night in the Park
This is a bird’s eye view or a high angle shot of central park in NY in the centre of Manhattan. We can see spring or summer because of the leaves on the trees. There is a vast expend of leaves, lakes, lanes. In the foreground there is a very big building it’s a museum: Metropolitan museum. In the background rows of skyscrapers.
Nature and origin
It’s an extract from a novel called moon Palace by Paul Auster published in 1989. Moon Palce is part of Paul Auster’s NY trilogy.
Summary
A homeless man spend the day wondering about where he is going to sleep and ends up sleeping in Central Park NY.
Structure
- Line 1 to 28 : Rejecting options/ a choice of options
- Line 28 until the end : A place to sleep / Central Park
Part 1
We are not told many things about the main and only character in this passage. We don’t know his name, his age, his occupation… All we know is that one late afternoon he finds himself with no place to sleep. He may have financial problems, he may have lost his job, and his wife kicked him out because he cheated on her. He might be coming from another part of the United States; he might have run out of money. He might have lost everything on the stuck marker in Wall Street. He is alone on the street, homeless. He has no experience, it’s the first time he is a homeless. He sort of though the matter would take care of himself. Nut now that night is approaching, he is beginning to panic of having no place to stay. Different solutions: - stretch out on the sidewalk- spend the night in a flophouse- spend the night in the subway. He is in despair at those alternatives. He rejects all 3 possibilities. Arguments: for the first one he could get exposes to danger, a madman could slit his throat, he could be arrested for vagrancy (vagabondage) . He refuses to go to a flophouse It repulses him because he would have to breathe their smells. For the third one, it’s noisy, too many lights, transit cops, not let him sleep. He still