Paul Missal: How To Draw A Fir Tree

In Willa Cather’s short coming of age like story “Paul’s Case,” Paul, the protagonist, shows contempt for everyone in his dull life including family and teachers and he has no friends. As a way of escaping the life that he thinks is so dreary and boring he indulges himself in his obsessions which include art, theater, music, and his job where he is an usher at Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh. His unrealistic ideas that the art world and world of ritzy first class people is like a fantasy like utopia leads him to become obsessed even more with observing others and eventually money. He sees it that being rich is is destiny. This selfishness also leads to his compulsive lying which he mostly uses to get attention from peers. Throughout Paul also becomes more self destructive in his habits and ideas. He imagines what it would be like for his dad to shoot him, he steals money from the bank his father makes him quit his job as an usher to work at to spend on a luxurious secret vacation where he also buys a gun from his thoughts of suicide. And eventually in the end, the money that he craved/desired and thought would bring him happiness lets him down and on the converge of ultimate sorrow, he takes his own life as he jumps in front of a train. But why does he act the way he does? Well, a psychoanalysis of Paul may reveal that the reason for his actions and for committing suicide might have stemmed from the fact that his psyche lies in the id realm and he is missing a superego.

Coming to Tangerine Middle was “quite the ride” for Paul. Paul was able to see how the Tangerine students are really like to compare to the dirty image that they have on them. First of all, transferring to this school has made Paul develop confidence in himself to speak the truth, which builds up a strong relationship with his teammates. Yet Paul still can’t get over his main fear, Erik. Although it may look like Paul grew an enormous amount, mentally in the novel, he still has a long way to go in order to face Erik. At the end of Part 2, Edward Bloor expresses Paul’s growth, emotionally in a strong way.

The choices that Erik made throughout his life never came without consequences, many of his choices, whether they were choices directed to him or not, affected Paul. Paul illustrates this idea by saying, “When we moved to Houston, when Erik was eleven, he realized that football was the star attraction,”(Bloor 29) This is talking about the “birth” of the “Erik Fisher Football Dream”; Erik use to play soccer and was successful at it, but he realized that football was the place to be if he wanted attention. Paul could’ve started playing soccer at that time as well and Erik didn’t want to risk being outshined by his younger brother. Another way Erik affected Paul, in a more indirect way, was when Arthur becomes Erik’s crony, “What will Arthur do

In Mark Jarman 's poem, "If I Were Paul," the speaker displays many changes in tone and diction to illustrate the crux of his ideology. The first three stanzas are completely exalting in their nature. The speaker uses three distinct categories to do this: creation of a being, virtue of an idea, and discovery of an object, and each of the first stanzas are devoted to one of these topics. Each of these subsets are purposefully selected to create a tone of artistry and fascination in the beginning stanzas of the poem. Eventually, the speaker changes tone to display the hypocrisy in the modern church. To a superficial reader, the speaker is rebuking a congregation, but further analysis reveals the speaker is attempting to write as a contemporary Paul of Tarsus, pointing out inconsistencies in the modern Christian faith.

When Paul, the main character, decides to abandon his childhood home to travel to his ideal city of New York, he eventually succumbs to the bitter reality of his own struggle with depression. “It was the old depression exaggerated; all the world had become Cordelia Street” (Cather 21). In Paul’s Case, by Willa Cather, the author writes of the depression-ridden Paul who attempted to convince himself that his appreciation and admiration of his dreams were nothing less than ideal, but they ultimately morphed into obsessions that failed. Despite Paul’s limited glimpses into his greatest hopes of living a life well beyond his current lifestyle, it was one he eventually realized he could never attain. Paul believed he could convince himself and the world, that Cordelia Street was where he started, but the lavish life of a New Yorker would be where he—not only deserved to be—but where he was meant to be. Despite his efforts, he ultimately fell. The aspects that made Paul resent Cordelia Street were aspects he discovered everywhere else—including New York City.

Paul and his family move from Houston, Texas to Tangerine, Florida. He has a brother named Erik who is a place kicker for the football team at Lake Windsor. On Paul’s first day at Lake Windsor he meets a kid named Joey Costello. When Paul finds out their is a soccer team he automatically thinks he is going to be the starter goaltender. He can’t play for Lake Windsor because of the IEP(his is blind). Then a sinkhole happens,and Paul is happy about that because Erik just lost all of his fans. Paul’s mom wanted him to go to St. Anthony’s,but Paul wanted to go to Tangerine so he could play soccer and be the starting goalie. On the first day of school Dr. Johnson had Theresa show Paul around. Paul met Victor, Tino, and Henry D. Paul and Joey were

Paul knew the importance of this meeting. He had already been in this before more than once maybe twice. As he sat in complete silence, his last encounter with Principal Sweet played in his mind over and over again.

In the “First Marking Period,” Melinda’s artwork symbolizes that she is struggling to cope with the beginning of high school and her journey of self expression. While in art class, and after going through many challenges in her first weeks of school, Melinda thinks, “I’ve been painting watercolors of trees that have been hit by lightning. I try to paint them so they are nearly dead,

Melinda’s art class is the only class that she enjoys because she feels that it is a way to show her emotions and to describe what she’s feeling. "I see a girl caught in the remains of a holiday gone bad, with her flesh picked off day after day as the carcass dries out.The knife and fork are obviously middle class sensibilities. The palm tree is a nice touch. A broken dream, perhaps?" (Anderson; 64) This piece of art shows how she feels. Her art teacher understands her emotions. However, she fails many times attempting to create a tree sculpture, but then finally succeeds. This represents how she fails to face the fact to understand that she was sexaully assaulted but then finds the answer. “This looks like a tree, buts it’s an average,everyday,boring tree. Breath life into it. Make it bend- trees are flexible, so they don’t snap. Scar it, give it a twisted branch - perfect trees don’t exist. Nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting. Be the tree.” (Anderson;153) Melinda’s art teacher wants her to connect with the tree, he wants the tree to represent her. When Melinda finally understands and comes out to what happened to her; the tree comes to life. Art makes Melinda understand, art makes her have

Whenever he is facing something troubling, Paul always seems to go to something that symbolizes spring. After being bereted by his teachers, Paul goes to work early to look at the painting “Paul possessed himself of the place and walked confidently up and down, whistling under his breath. After a while he sat before a blue Rico and lost himself” (178). Simply focusing on the bright, and vibrant colors of the paintings seem to be a euphoric release for Paul, and so is listening to the lively music of Carnegie Hall: “He felt a sudden zest of life; the lights danced before his eyes and the concert hall blazed into unimaginable splendor” (178). There is always happy music played in the spring. After Paul’s father takes away all of Paul’s joy, all of his escapes, Paul finds no other choice but to steal away and find the life he has always wanted to live. Paul goes on a search for happiness and finds it in bright colorful New York City. The atmosphere brings Paul to life. Paul is surrounded by flowers, the most recognizable symbol of spring, bright colors, and happy people. He finally feels like he belongs: “He could not remember a time when he had felt so at peace with

Imagine waking up every morning not being able to see and only being able to blame yourself for it. That is exactly what the main character Paul, in the book Tangerine, by Edward Bloor, has to deal with every day. Paul moves from Houston, Texas to Tangerine, Florida and has to surpass many obstacles and deal with his devilish brother. He also has to deal with moving, deaths, fights, teamwork, and getting kicked off of his soccer team. Throughout the story Paul needs to make several choices.

St. Louis, as a school, provides children with the opportunity to be as imaginative as they can possibly be. This imaginative spirit is observed by the effulgently colorful pictures created by the fictive minds of the students, starring center stage on the windows that wrapped themselves tightly around the school like a bow on a package. Next to the building lies a lengthy plot of land. On it resides a flamboyantly colored playground set which lures adventurous children in to

Paul leaves the elevator, and as he walks down the hallway toward his apartment the song "A Spoonful of Sugar" becomes louder and louder.

Some say money changes you, some say money changes the people around and others say money changes everyone. In Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case”, Paul is a teenage misfit who lives in a Pittsburgh neighborhood. The love of money is put on such a high pedestal that it consumes Paul and the way which he lives. Everything he does is influenced by his desire for wealth. His love for theater and art becomes an addiction and drive him to steal money and retreat to New York. Here, Paul experiences the “fast life” as he dines and shops expensively. Paul then realizes he is the victim of his own demise and takes his own life. Paul’s obsession with theater, luxury and the dystopian society he lives in are the reasons for his isolation and loss of life.

At the beginning of Paul illness, he thought he has isthmic spondylolisthesis because of the symptoms are shown on him. In addition, this type of illness is more common than spine cancer in the thirty. Therefore, Paul was sure he has isthmic spondylolisthesis.