The Tragic Tale of Paul's Case

Analysis of Paul's Case by Willa Cather Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case” is a story about a young 16 year-old man, Paul, who is motherless and alienated. Paul’s lack of maternal care has led to his alienation. He searches for the aesthetics in life that that he doesn’t get from his yellow wallpaper in his house and his detached, overpowering father figure in his life. Paul doesn’t have any interests in school and his only happiness is in working at Carnegie Hall and dreams of one-day living the luxurious life in New York City. Paul surrounds himself with the aesthetics of music and the rich and wealthy, as a means to escape his true reality.

Paul's Character in Paul's Case Pauls's Case is the story of a young man who struggles with his identity. Paul feels that he knows where he belongs, but his family and teachers refuse to support his choices. In the middle of Paul's Case, there is a switch in narration. At this point, the reader can associate with Paul and his problems. Paul struggles with both internal and external conflicts, causing him to be quite a puzzling 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.

"Paul's Case," by Willa Cather, is a story that deals with a young boy who does not feel that he lives a life befitting of him. Upon a close reading, it is evident that "Paul's Case" is ruled by irony and symbolism, which are apparent in the story through the words of the narrator. The irony woven throughout the text builds up to an epiphonic moment, a main paradox in the story, which reveals to the reader Paul's true nature.

Cather realized that writing from the perspective of any of the authoritative leaders would have made it entirely too easy to blame Paul for his fatal ending and to write the leaders off as victims. So instead she paints the world around Paul to the readers from the eyes of Paul so that we can see what he sees. In this world his father, like most of the leaders in this novel is domineering and self-righteous. They did not try to understand Paul or to listen to him. Instead they tried to “correct” him, to mold him into the standard image of a male. As a result, Paul rebelled yet he never did stop fearing. As stated in the text, Paul always feared that his father’s ability to end his life. As unreasonable as it...

Paul's Case by Willa Cather shows the world through the eyes of Paul, a boy's who's naive view of a good life leads to a tragic fate. Throughout the story, the reader is shown the life of Paul a snobby kid who believes he is above everyone else. Readers are shown his views of life and given quite a bit of information about Paul's character. By giving details about Pauls character through his thoughts, actions, words, and others' thoughts about him, readers are able to have an in depth view of his character and understand why he ultimately decides to take his own life.

In conclusion, Willa Carther’s “Paul’s Case” is an interesting glimpse into the world of a young boy, who’s individuality is constantly in conflict with the conformist society that surrounds him. In attempts to escape this reality, Paul loses himself in a fantasy world of art, lies, and thievery. In this attempt to escape, Paul slips into isolation and depression. Carther in this regard is very careful on how she portrays Paul, to brink about some sympathy from the reader as he is simply a troubled young man. In the end, Paul’s individuality and societies refusal of him leads to Paul’s demise. The sympathy Cather creates for Paul leaves one questioning if society simply should have supported Paul’s individuality, instead of letting him slip away. Paul’s death seems to support this theory, as not a single reader would have wished such a cruel ending to the life of a dreamer.

In the short-story “Paul’s Case”, written by Willa Cather, Paul has just been suspended from high school because his teacher’s do not know how to deal with him. Paul’s mother died shortly after he was born so he lives with his father and sisters. In a way, Paul comes from a broken home. He does not have a mother and he does not hold a quality relationship with his father, like every boy wants. He is described as awkward and feels like he never really fits in anywhere. This evidence of Paul’s character displays warning signs and causes of depression. He is constantly trying to escape life through art or making up scenarios of his father thinking he is a burglar and shooting him. Paul has consistently assumed he will fail and disappoint his father. At the end of the story, Paul buys a gun in New York in thoughts of suicide. The narrator states, “The thing was winding up itself up; he had thought of that on his first glorious day in New York, and had even provided a way to snap the thread (Cather 14). Even though he was on an adventure, he predicted he would need a way to “snap the thread”, or commit suicide. The thoughts of dying were always lying in the back of his head. Several times the narrator states that there is a darkness in Paul. In the end, Paul commits suicide because of the unhappiness and alienation he has felt, which lead him to decide to jump in front of a train. Paul is a part of the male sex that has committed suicide. The depression he had conquered him, leading to his decision of ending his life. If he had better relationships in his life or a better home situation, it could have been different for him. In addition, Cather suggests that Paul has homosexual feelings, which cause his alienation from others. Paul fel...

Then a huge choice that Paul made was when he decided that he was going to Tangerine,”I want to go to Tangerine Middle School,and I want to go with no IEP,”(Ebook)this was a huge choice for paul since it was the first time when he had stood up to his parent.One way that this was part of the series of events that would change him was that it showed that Paul changed since he stood up to his parents when he wanted to do something instead of just doing what they told him to do.One other consequence that was good from him going to Tangerine was that he was going to be allowed to play soccer which was something that he loved to do but couldn’t play at Lake Windsor Downs Middle School.He would also grow his confidence from doing this since being on the soccer team made it that he would be with people who understood how he felt about soccer.Also since the Soccer Team of Tangerine won a lot it would impact him a lot since from it he would grow confident since he knew that he was also part of the reason that their team won he had a sense that he belonged something that he didn’t have.He would meet new people which would completely change him in a good way since what him and his new friends of Tangerine did would show him that he can’t be scared of everything since his friends would get in trouble a lot they knew that you couldn’t be afraid of small things.His friends from Tangerine had also showed him that sometimes you have to do what is right even though it may be considered a

Religion is the catalyst of conflict between Paul and his brother Andrew, however anti-intellectual difference between the individuals becomes a key affect of the novel. Paul at a young age decides to abandon his Puritan beliefs, due to the intellectual character of his father Henry as well as the strict Puritan ways of his mother Edith. “Slowly I realised I could