The short story, “Paul’s Case,” by Willa Cather, portrays a clinically depressed young man, Paul, who misunderstands money. Paul was born into the middle class, but he desires a lavish upper class life. Paul’s desires cause him to despise his own community and turn him into an outcast. Due to monetary constraints, Paul cannot fulfill his desire to be a member of the upper class community either. Therefore, Paul believes money is the answer to his problems. Unfortunately, Paul does not understand the correlation between money and hard work, so he sees himself as trapped where he is in society. Whereas, the successful business tycoons he idealizes are able to work hard and amass great riches that advanced their position in society. In “Paul’s Case,” Willa Cather uses symbolism, diction, and an omniscient third person point of view to examine how misunderstanding money is dangerous. This misunderstanding of money is Paul’s demise at the end of the story. Vivid symbolism is distributed throughout “Paul’s Case” in an impactful way. The most important symbol in “Paul’s Case” is the red carnation. In the beginning of the story, Paul is at a hearing regarding his eventual expulsion from High School. “His teachers felt this afternoon that his whole attitude was …show more content…
This enhances the reader’s understanding of Paul’s isolation by illustrating his disconnection and lack of communication with others. Furthermore, the distance Paul experiences from those around him is displayed in the titles allotted to the supporting characters. Paul’s sisters are mentioned briefly and never given names, his father is merely referred to as “father,” and Paul is never identified with a surname. Moreover, the isolation Paul experiences amongst the middle-class causes him to idealize money all the more because of his desire for acceptance amongst the
...onas which cause him to overlap his personas making him overlap his names with his different personas. Paul who has now lost control feels powerless and obediently listens to Ousia about going to the police serving his time and then coming out of prison to live a happy life with her and Flan.
In Paul’s true reality he has a lack of interest in school. His disinterest in school stems from the alienation and isolation he has in life. This disinterest in school reflects Paul’s alienation because of the unusual attention he receives there that he doesn’t get at home. In class one day he was at the chalkboard and “his English teacher had stepped to his side and attempted to guide his hand” (Cather 1). Paul, at the moment of being touched, stepped backwards suddenly and put his hands behind his back. In other classes he looks out the window during lectures and pays little attention to his teacher’s lessons. Paul, growing up without a mother figure in his life, is unaccustomed to any affection or care from his teachers that mothers tend to give. Therefore, his alienation is portrayed in his attitude toward school, and the fore...
"Paul’s Case." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Kathleen Wilson. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 192-209. Short Stories for Students. Gale. Web. 21 Jan. 2010.
Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case,” displays the conflict between conformity and individuality through the main character, Paul. On a number of occasions, Paul is forced to lie and steal to escape the conformists who wish to control him and stifle his unique imagination. However, his lying, stealing, and attempts to escape the conformists, only force Paul into isolation, depression, and feeling a sense of shame for his individuality. Throughout the story one might see Cather’s constant contrast of individuality versus conformity, as well as Paul’s lying and stealing. Cather seems to draw the conclusion that extreme individuals, much like Paul are simply misunderstood, and not offered the acceptance they desire from conformist society.
In "Paul's Case," the story revolves around a young male. He is the main character. There are very few mentions of women, however, when they do come into the story they are only mentioned briefly, or they play minor, secondary characters. Paul's mother and sisters are spoken about once during the entire story, while there are four references to his father. The females in his family are mentioned only in passing and remain flat characters, while his father is referred to several times, each time involving an action or comment which exhibits an aspect of his father's personality which makes him a more rounded character.
The setting of the short story “Paul’s Case” is clear and appropriate for the story. This is because Paul's feelings in the story happen to have a direct connection to the setting of the story. The East Coast of the United States is where the story takes place. From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Newark, New Jersey, and then on to New York, New York, the exact setting differs throughout the story. “…the dull dawn was beginning to show grey when the engine whistled a mile out of Newark” (Cather). At this point in the story, the main character, Paul, is on board a train which has departed from his hometown of Pittsburgh en route to the Jersey City Station. From there, he plans to make his way to the glamorous New York City, a city that he has always dreamed about visiting. As Paul reads the Pittsburgh paper on the morning of his eighth day in New York, he figures out that his dad is coming for him. “The rumour had reached Pittsburgh that the boy had been seen in a New York hotel, and his father had gone East to find him and bring him home” (Cather). Paul’s father is pursuing him because Paul had left home over a week ago and his father, only now, knows where Paul has run off to. The setting has a direct correlation to the state of Paul’s mind. For example, in a gloomy Pittsburgh, Paul tries anything and everything to get out of the life he is living, and escapes to the glamour and high-class life of New York. “…the New York scenes are heavily ironic…as [Paul] luxuriates in the Waldorf” (Wasserman). He does this in an attempt to find a better life for himself and to make himself, ultimately, happy.
In Paul’s Case, Willa Cather writes about a young man's unhappiness with his lifestyle, he is awkward, does not fit into his skin different and does not fit into society,his desire to have to more than what he already and to leave Cornelia street to live a lifestyle of wealth, Cather characterizes Paul as very awkward and as someone that does not fit into the normal norms of society. He was not close to his family and had no friends at school or outside of school. At the biggin on the story we are reading in the third person point of view and we are hearing how his his teachers see paul and are discussing about his weird ways and actions.“I don't really believe that smile of his comes altogether from insolence, “he says. “There's something
Despite parental efforts to control children, teenage rebellion proves as an unavoidable staple in individuals' maturation. For some, this rebellion proves brief; for others it results in devastation. Regardless, this necessary and natural process often includes defiance of societal expectation in addition to domestic contradiction. Society's typical rejection of teenage rebellion destroys innocence, disturbs peace, and often inhibits social progress.
When two siblings are born together, and are close in age, many people wonder whether they will be the same or different altogether. A “River Runs through it” shows two brothers who grew up in the same household, and grew up loving to do the same activity fly fishing. Both brothers were raised in a very strict presbyterian household. Norman is the older brother, and he is much more responsible and family orientated. Paul is the irresponsible younger brother; Paul as an adult was not at home much anymore. Both brothers were loved equally as children, but how they view and use love is what separates them. Paul and Norman differ in behavior and character.
Paul in “Paul’s Case” wanted to get away from the reality and the hostile environment he faced. He was sick of Pittsburgh and the middle-class, Cordelia Street, which he lived on. Although his mother past away, his home life was as normal as could be. This is something Paul hated, normality. At school he would tell other students false stories to try to make his life seem more interesting than theirs. This ultimately caused none of the other students like him, even the teachers lash out at him. Paul was suspended from school, but he didn’t mind. He found an interest in music and in art, although he knew his father would not approve. Paul’s father wanted him to be a business man, have a normal family and have an ordinary life. Although, having a normal, ordinary life was not what Paul had in mind for his future. He dreamt of much more which caused him to believe he would never get his father’s approval.
Paul sees himself as superior. He carries himself with a haughty countenance and air about him, apparent in the description "Paul entered the faculty room suave and smiling." His attempts to portray himself as elegant is obvious in the adornments with which he tries to accentuate his attire: "he wore an opal pin in his neatly knotted black fourin-hand, and a red carnation in his button-hole." The irony in Paul's self-delusion lies in the way he is, in reality, seen by the rest of the world. While he thinks that he is dapper and winning in his ornamented garb, t...
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,...
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
In the beginning of the story, Paul seems to be a typical teenage boy: in trouble for causing problems in the classroom. As the story progresses, the reader can infer that Paul is rather withdrawn. He would rather live in his fantasy world than face reality. Paul dreaded returning home after the Carnegie Hall performances. He loathed his "ugly sleeping chamber with the yellow walls," but most of all, he feared his father. This is the first sign that he has a troubled homelife. Next, the reader learns that Paul has no mother, and that his father holds a neighbor boy up to Paul as "a model" . The lack of affection that Paul received at home caused him to look elsewhere for the attention that he craved.
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.