COMMENTARY ON PAUL AUSTER’S WHITE NIGHTS

By Samira Bulchandani 11

Paul Auster’s “White Nights” is an aporia of human existence and purpose. The title, an oxymoron,

is telling of the conflicting nature of the poem as the speaker struggles to understand the purpose of

his existence. White, often associated with peace and tranquility, is juxtaposed with the darkness of

night, which is a reference point to both time but also the looming fall of the speaker; this connotes

loss of memory or death. Hence,“White Nights” would then be a time of loss, ambiguity, and

remembrance of a reality fading into darkness. Auster’s metafictional use of a stark lack of narrative

explores existentialism and nihilism. Auster uses ambiguity as a vehicle to construct a

multidimensional reality that hangs between the binary oppositions of life, namely consciousness—

presented as presence—and unconsciousness —presented as absence— which are metaphors for a

realm of existence void of both life and death.

The poem is divided into five stanzas. The absence of a rhyme scheme and free verse are

telling of the speaker’s incoherent thoughts. Additionally, the poem is interspersed with caesura,

creating the reflective and pondering tone of the speaker, who tries to understand the laws of life

and destiny.

Auster sets his poem in a dark, desolate landscape and sets the exact time reference and

atmosphere in the opening of the second stanza: “Snowfall at night.” The unknown of the darkness

and void associated with night reflects on the persona’s isolation in the poem. However, the setting

itself adds to the ambiguity of the poem. The darkness of the night is paradoxical: although it seems

to be emerging from nothing, it is in fact an actant. Snow, often connoted as pristine and smooth,

juxtaposes the speaker’s chaotic mind, thus magnifying the speaker’s state of aporia. Moreover, the

purity of snow is a contrast to the dead, decaying murdered body.

 The poem’s play on the ideas of presence and absence, as a metaphor the conscious and

unconscious states, conjure a mise en abyme in Auster’s poem: the listeners feel as though they are

seeing an infinite reflection of the ideas in the poem. This mise en abyme serves to highlights the

vastness and infiniteness of the universe and possibilities in life. Auster achieves this through the

repetition of the “body” and “earth”. On one hand, the speaker implies that the body is a product

and part if the earth: “the body’s whiteness/is the color of earth.” However, at the end of the poem,

the speakers views the body as a sacred being, as it becomes one with the earth: “And yet, the body

is a place/where nothing dies.” The persona presents the dead body as becoming a part of the earth

and a human again, as part of the circle of life, thus creating the mise en abyme.

Ambiguity imbues the construct of the poem, in order to bring out the juxtaposition of

presence and absence. The poem begins with the words “no one.” This is utterly obscure in the

sense that it both signifies presence and absence. Throughout the poem, the persona speaks of the

non-existent “no one,” leading the listeners of the poem to presuppose the presence of something

that it is relative to the absence. Auster uses absence as an extended mise en abyme to lure the

listeners into the unknown.

Although a voice is heard, there is absence of an identity to which it belongs, thus conjuring

a sense of alienation caused by this disembodiment. The last line of the poem informs “from the

silence of the trees, you know/ that my voice/ comes walking toward you.” The subject is therefore

alienated to itself through the synecdoche. Rather than simply saying that he walks towards you, the

speaker says “[his] voice” in order to display the alienation and loss of identity in the poem, as the

self is separated from the ego. This disassociation is heightened with the repetition of “no one” and

the second person pronoun “you,” in the particular line: “is heard by no one/but you.” However, the
use of the second person is also an authorial intrusion; this could suggest that the persona is inviting

the listeners to share is confusion and wonder.

Nihilism suffuses the poem as this ambiguity extends to the metaphorical “pen,” in the

second stanza. The “pen” is a metonymic representation alluding to the tool that god uses to write

out our destinies as it “move[s] across the earth.” The speaker explores a nihilistic aspect as he says

“it no longer knows/what will happen, and the hand that holds it/ has disappeared.” Here, the

speaker questions the existence of God, alluded to by “the hand,” as, does god truly exist if murders

like the one he witnessed in the forest occur?

This idea continues in the third stanza. He informs that “it writes,” casting a penumbra of

doubt. “it” could refer to a personified pen or God. Either way, the persona believes that there is a

celestial body which has written out our purpose of life. The repetition of “it writes” throughout the

stanza heightens the magnitude that “it” controls, from “the beginning,/ among the trees, a body

came walking” to “the body’s whiteness.” The end of the stanza finally offers some certainty in the

poem, as the speaker clarifies that “it” is earth, expounding that he or she sees earth as universal

power.

The last stanza brings the poem to a full circle as the disembodied conscious and

unconscious unite under the single entity, “I,” which is the ego. Although this unity may seem to

lessen the isolation in the poem, the unconscious yet tries to disassociate itself from the conscious,

evident in the assertion, “I am no longer here, I have never said / what you say/ I have said.” Yet,

this is contrasted by the last line of the poem wherein the speaker states, “that my voice comes

walking toward you.” This conflict reinforces the idea of aporia throughout the poem.
 Paul Auster’s White Nights is a postmodern questioning of the purpose and laws of life.

Through ambiguity, mise en abyme, and nihilistic philosophies, Auster presents the wonders and

uncertainties of life. Auster’s persona’s alienation and disembodiment, as his ego and self split

between consciousness and unconsciousness in the poem, reflect on his struggle to find the answers

to the mystery of life.