Comparing Paul Auster s essay Portrait of an Invisible Man with John Wideman s Our Time
In Auster’s essay, “Portrait of an Invisible Man” and Wideman’s “Our Time,” both authors wrote about a specific family member in order to know and understand that person. In gathering information, both then reflected on their own lives, and roles they had played in the other person’s life. ... Wideman on the other hand, wanted to learn about the life of his jailed brother, and how they, despite being brothers, had had such diverse paths to adulthood. ... No one really knew who Auster’s father had been; he was someone different to everyone. Auster found that his father was removed from everyone in his life, no family really depended on him, and in the end, no one’s life would be truly altered by his death. Everything from his job, to his family life was all a consistent battle to stay invisible and escape reality.