Final Sunset Park and New Criticism

Upon finishing Sunset Park, I feel very anxious. I thought the point of the novel was for the characters to evolve, find themselves, and move on from their past, but the end does not give closure. Instead, the end takes the closure that you thought you felt and turns it upside down. I thought Miles and his father had reconciled their differences and I thought Miles and Pilar had worked out their future together and things would finally be right between Miles, Pilar, and Morris. The ending seems to undo all of the progress that the characters have made. They have fought through their troubles and overcame their pasts, but in the end they all end up just as worse off as in the beginning. Does Bing get out of jail? Does Miles keep running, go to jail, or does he actually have a future with Pilar? Is Morris angry at his son and angry that he has come into his life just to cause him more grief? I feel like these are questions that seriously need to be answered for me to feel as if the novel is a complete work. Miles worked for 7 years with no idea or hope for a future, but once he moved to New York he gained self-worth and finally grew into a man that could see a future for himself; however, in the last paragraph of the novel, he has the same mentality as he did at the beginning. No future, stop hoping for anything. So did he actually not learn anything from the 7 years he spent in exile? Despite the uneasiness I have about Miles and Bing, I do feel that Ellen and Alice are complete characters. They grew significantly throughout the novel and turned out to be much stronger people than I thought. I am very unhappy with the ending because of Miles and the uncertainty of his future with his parents and Pilar; however, Auster partially comes full circle with Ellen and Alice.

From the vantage point of a new critic, I might argue that Paul Auster does come full circle with the ending of Sunset Park. The ending is not meant to fix each problem the characters encountered; instead, it is used to portray the hopelessness of a depression and the uncertainty of real life. Auster does not lead us to the end of each of the character’s lives; we just have to assess what we have been given. If the ending does anything, it unifies the novel. Miles’ swollen hand is comparable to the wounded soldier from The Best Years of Our Lives. Like the soldier needing assistance for simple tasks, Miles now has to rely on his father to help him escape prison. Miles also returns to his former mindset, “he will stop hoping for anything and live only for now.” While Miles was roaming the country working dead-end jobs he had this same ideology; he did not want to think about the past and he refused to think of the future. Just when Miles seemed to be growing up and creating a real life for himself, the eviction kicked him back to his old ways.

Bing is another character that seems to be left hanging at the end, but the tension from the uncertainty of his life in prison is actually just what Bing would have wanted. Throughout the novel Bing told the others that he would stay in the house and hold his ground until the day the police came and took him to jail. And that’s exactly what happened. In a twisted sort of way, Bing got his happy ending; however, he is still hopeless and homeless in the eyes of society.

Alice and Ellen are also left in hopelessness. In the last few sections, Alice and Ellen really seemed to have turned their lives around. Alice was finished with Jake and her dissertation. She was ready to move out and start her career. Just at that time, the police came. Now she is left without her computer which stores her dissertation and any hope of starting a new life. Ellen showed the most progress in the final pages of the novel. She was dating her old fling, opened up to Bing, had a great collection of drawings, and underwent a full makeover. Just as her confidence is soaring and she is making plans to move out and in with her boyfriend, she is evicted and running from the police. She lost all of her art work and the ability to safely live in the city without worrying if she will be caught. Despite all of the progress they made and the obstacles they overcame, Alice and Ellen have returned to their hopeless and homeless state.