Chance as Cause of Divergence

Chance is a common theme in Paul Auster’s body of work, and this novel explores the idea of chance through its central structural conceit as a means of examining chance as a confluence of divergent factors that can lead to divergent effects in a person’s life. The four alternate timelines examine the ways in which Ferguson’s choices and circumstances affect the trajectory of his life. This concept is addressed in Chapter 1.2, when Ferguson thinks about all of the small changes that would have prevented him from falling out of a tree and breaking his arm: “Such an interesting thought, Ferguson said to himself: to imagine how things could be different for him even though he was the same” (54). The divergences between the timelines accumulate and become more pronounced as time progresses, and thus the narrative demonstrates via its integral...