The Music of CHance

Paul Auster’s Music of Chance is a story about risks, money, and one man’s lack of direction in his life. In the beginning of the story, the protagonist Jim Nashe, an ex-fireman from Boston, spends a good amount of time just driving around the country using the remaining amounts of his money his father had left him in his will. He couldn’t stand staying for more than a couple of days at most in one spot. He was always on the move and as a result, he lost precious time that he could have spent with his daughter in Minnesota. It wasn’t until one day while driving on a lone road; he spots a disheveled young man by the name Pozzi. The two form a partnership for an upcoming poker game. This all takes place in the first chapter of Auster’s book, and it serves an important role by allowing the reader to enter Nashe’s life. It becomes understood that he is not sure what he wants to do with himself and with his life. He drives all day and part of the night, but at the end of his travel!

ing, he truly has gone nowhere. The movie does not include these crucial events. Instead, Nashe only mentions that he drove a lot in his past, but he does not touch on important things like his daughter and his run in with Fiona. The deletion and addition

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Instead of Nashe driving the car and Pozzi being on the side of the road, it is a stranger driving the car, and a disheveled Nashe walking by himself.

The first chapter in the book is such a crucial element to the story because it illustrates Nashe’s search his own life. He has become a slave in the Stone’s miniature “City of the World. They can only use picture and sound to help portray their message. No one could stop him from driving as it allows him to be his own boss. Was there really another alternative? By killing himself as well as the other two men, he revenges Pozzi death and comes to terms with his own life. Money does not play as big as a role in the movie as it does in the film. Literature uses words and descriptions to allow the reader to get a feel for what is happening in the story. In away, the movie forms a circle, a true 360 from the very beginning of the film.

As big of a difference that the beginning of the book and the beginning of the film made, is of equal proportion in the endings of the two. He was being a terrible father to Juliette, missing her birthday and being absent for the crucial years of her childhood. Pozzi grew into such an important figure in Jim’s life; He was practically a father to the young boy, and now his son was gone. As he drives himself and the two men back to Stone’s and Flower’s plantation, he mentally blocks out his two passengers and creates a world of his own. So now what is Nashe going to do? Is the stranger driving the car !

going to just give him a few thousand dollars and Nashe can happily go back to Minnesota and hop back into Juliette’s life again? Is he cured of his quest for travel and he can he finally be happy with settling down in one place? It doesn’t seem right that Nashe is still alive, as horrible as it may sound. The ending to the book was more practical and almost seems to “fit” the story more so than the movie ending.

Approximate Word count = 1696
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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