Heredity or environment
Are humans the products of nature, or are they products of the way that they are nurtured? Do human genes dictate the kind of person that one becomes? These are some of the questions that have continued to plague humanity. These questions have given psychologists, philosophers and scientists’ material in which to work with. Willa Cather in her short story Paul’s Case tries to answer some of these questions in a skillful way. However, she does not offer a clear resolution; this is according to the interpretations given by her critics.
Loretta Wassermann in her book Willa Cather suggests that, extensive interpratation Paul’s case has been divided(Wasserman 24).It has been divided upon the answers given by many critics of Willa’s work. Many people see Paul’s story, as a critical narration of a sensitive inclined youth, who is crushed by a detrimental environment. This is exhibited by the ugliness of his home area. Other people perceive the story as a study of detrimental and pathological states. The time that Cather wrote her story, had a great influence on her writings. Born at the second phase of the industrial revolution, she grew up at a time when new inventions helped in the construction of big industries (Edward and Leon 13).
Cather deals with the technological and aesthetic issue in her story, Paul’s Case. The story is set in Pittsburg, a town that is characterized by the glamorous lives of steel kings such as Carnegie (Edward and Leon 11). The wealthy steel kings, were a vital focal point for Paul’s aspirations. In the first part of the story, we meet Paul through his teacher’s perceptions. We are able to learn that at school, Paul is perceived as being Contemptuous and immensely irritating (Marilyn...
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...nd lack of human understanding. Paul thinks that all he needs is an environment change but he is wrong. Paul perception of the artistic life is far from the truth, he can only be described as a bad case (Carpenter 598).
Despite all these, it is worth noting that, Paul is a typical adolescent who wants a life that is different from the one he was born in. The desire for a different life is part of an adolescent longing to have a better life. Many people believe that, to become the person they are destined to be, they need to change their environment. At one point in people’s life, there is a struggle where one denies the obvious, such as things which are vital for one to work, to achieve goals. Paul’s case is a case study; it is about a young troubled man who has genes that need excitement to benefit from changes that occur in the environment.
Works Cited
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Paul’s character relates to the central idea because he is an example of a person who was not accepted by others and fell down on a dark path of no
What makes a person who they are is a difficult dilemma. Mark Twain's novel, "Pudd'nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins" is a critical analysis of how nature and nurture can cultivate emotions and free will, which in turn affects the life of individuals. "Twain's faltering sense of direction began about slavery, moral decay, and deceptive realities (Kaplan 314). The debate of `nature versus nurture' has been one of the most intriguing scientific and cultural issues for most of the twentieth century, in determining the behavioral aspects of human beings. The changes in environment, society, education, political influences, family values and morals and other external influences, combined with physical genes determines how mankind will evolve into adulthood. Both nature and nurture, in combination with emotions and free will, control the behavior of human beings and determines who we are.
The era during the short story, Wagner Matinee, was a remarkable time in history. The world was being discovered and the industrial industry was just coming into the prime highlight. The new industry brought life to ease for the people living in very compact areas, such as the East coast of the United States. They had privileges such as trains, electricity, and multiple others honors. These were displayed through the speaker’s advantages in Boston. However, in areas where the population was slim, the settlers did not have all the advantages that people in the already settled places did. This was tough on the people inhabiting the isolated plains; especially if they were already adjusted for the ways of life with the industrial industry. In Wagner Matinee the speaker’s Aunt was born and raised in Boston, also, she was influenced by music in every way possible. She played the piano, listened to famous composers, and even traveled to Paris for the privilege to listen to an opera. It was big surprise for her wealthy family to receive the news that she had eloped to live in the new frontier of Nebraska with a young man. Cather wrote this text to identify how the people of the west frontier had strength and endurance, her examples were the physical bearing toughness of the West, the isolation from the new age, and the enduring silence the pioneers had dealt with in their time.
What I am going to be is an engineer, civil engineer. But as time goes on, his goal becomes more unreachable. His family cannot afford for him to go to university and he must become a salesman in order to earn money to educate himself. Reality is tough, these jobs are not successfully useful for him to make money and the failure hinders him emotionally. Similarly, in the “Paul’s case”, Paul is obsessed with money and he believes that money will solve all his problems.
Cather portrays the tension between Alexandra and the community in the first four chapters of the section, entitled "Neighboring Fields." Alexandra, an iconoclast, who challenges the close-minded and petty world of small-town America, in which Lou and Oscar, her older brothers, are in one accord with. To an extent, Alexandra's brothers are bound to tradition, obsessed with popular opinion, and frightened by unconventional thought. Just as Lou and Oscar initially resist Alexandra's vision of the land's future and later her innovative farming techniques, they also ridicule her impulse to treat Crazy Ivar with k...
The novel opens by introducing Paul’s father Geremio, his mother Annunziata, and Job. Geremio is a construction crew supervisor who struggles to improve his family’s condition, and even though he has been making progress, he still wonders how much more will be exacted from him. A religiously faithful man, he asks God for guidance: "Is it not possible to breathe God’s air without fear dominating the pall of unemployment? And the terror of production for Boss, Boss, and Job? To rebel is to lose all of the very little. To be obedient is to choke. O dear Lord, guide my path" (13). Geremio articulates the conflict he feels between Boss and Job, which rules his earthly life, and the struggle of his spirit. The pressures have not crushed his faith,...
From the outset of the story, the reader is shown Paul's thoughts. Through this the story tells us that Paul has a very active imagination. This is shown when Pauls says, "Then,
In ‘Paul’s Case’ Paul has created a fantasy world in which he becomes entranced, even to the point of lying to classmates about the tales of grandeur and close friendships that he had made with the members of the stock company. This fantasy falls apart around him as “the principle went to Paul’s father, and Paul was taken out of school and put to work. The manager at Carnegie Hall was told to get another usher in his stead; the doorkeeper at the theater was warned not to admit him to the house” (Cather 8). The fantasy fell apart further when the stories he had told his classmates reached the ears of the women of the stock company, who unlike their lavish descriptions from Paul were actually hardworking women supporting their families. Unable to cope with the reality of working for Denny & Carson, he stole the money he was supposed to deposit in the bank to live the life of luxury in New York. Only a person who felt backed into a corner would attempt something so unsound. After his eight days in paradise, he is again backed into a corner by the reality of his middle class upbringing, and the dwindling time he has before his father reaches New York to find him. The final way out for Paul is his suicide, for which an explanation would be “In the end, he fails to find his security, for it was his grandiose “picture making mechanism” that made his life so deardful.” (Saari). With all the securities of his fantasy life finally gone, his mental instability fully comes to light as he jumps in front of the train to end his
Paul's father is a single parent trying to raise his children in a respectable neighborhood. He is a hard worker and trying to set a good example for his son. His father puts pressure on Paul by constantly referring to a neighbor, whom he feels is a perfect model for his son to follow.
Summers, Claude J. "'A Losing Game in the End': Aestheticism and Homosexuality in Cather's 'Paul's Case.'" Modern Fiction Studies 36:1 (Spring 1990): 103-119.
Why are we the way we are? Is it because we want to be that way or because we were made that way? The debate regarding the nature of humans is one that will never end because there is so much support for each side. It is an issue that humans have spent generations pondering. Two of those people are Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Both have made compelling arguments regarding nature versus nurture.
Rosowski, Susan J. “Willa Cather’s “A Lost Lady”: The Paradoxes of Change.” Novel: A Forum on Fiction 11.1 (1977): 59. JSTOR. Web. 07 March 2012
What makes us humans what we truly are; from our appearance to our habits; and our preferences. A list of questions that will never end. Do we born this way; nor did the environment shapes us; do we born to this world with an existing knowledge of everything is taught and learn? Those questions are one of the biggest debate in the field of developmental psychology: Nature vs, Nurture.
In 1874, Francis Galton said, “Nature is all that a man brings with him into the world; nurture is every influence that affects him after his birth”. The human body contains millions upon millions of cells and each of these cells contains hereditary information and DNA. However, there is no proof that the information carried in these genes predetermines the way in which we behave. I believe it is our life experiences and what we see and are told that shape the way in which we behave. Therefore, it appears to me that nurturing plays a far more governing and dominant role in a human being’s development rather than nature.
Throughout the history of human existence, there have always been questions that have plagued man for centuries. Some of these questions are “what is the meaning of life” and “which came first, the chicken or the egg”. Within the past 400 years a new question has surfaced which takes our minds to much further levels. The question asked is whether nature or nurture has more of an impact on the growing development of people. It is a fact that a combination of nature and nurture play important roles in how humans behave socially. However, I believe that nature has a more domineering role in the development of how people behave in society with regards to sexual orientation, crimes and violence and mental disorders.