Comparison and Contrast of Paul Auster's "Portrait of an Invisible Man" and Carolyn Kay Steedman's "Exiles"

Paul Auster's "Portrait of an Invisible Man" and Carolyn Kay Steedman's "Exiles" present the family histories of two very different people, the former - an American poet and the latter - a British cultural historian, but nevertheless these essays have many things in common, both in terms of style and content. The main character in Auster's piece of writing is his father. Steedman's work is also centered on her parents, and the tone of both …

…her family and she keeps the same attitude throughout the whole work. By writing "A Portrait of an Invisible Man," Auster manages to get a better understanding of the person his father was and to reconciliate with the past, as we can see from the end of his essay, while Steedman does not seem to have achieved inner peace in the thoughts about her parents. Her family history finishes with cries of accusation and frustration.