Symbolism In Paul's Case By Willa Cather

He is so distracted by the snow that he even gets called out in class. In class they were talking about some very interesting things. The topic of choice was the two most coldest regions on the globe, “The Arctic and Antarctic regions, which of course, on the globe, were white”(Aiken 5). This is very odd, the fact that his insanity is in the form of snow. It just so happens the main topic for class is the two regions in the world with the most snow. It’s officially taken over, it is so strange to everyone else. The snow had gotten to the point where he sees it everywhere. The text states, “And the mist of snow, as he had foreseen, was still on it-a ghost of snow falling in the bright sunlight, softly and steadily floating and turning and pausing, soundlessly meeting the snow that covered, as with a transparent mirage, the bare bright cobbles”(Aiken 13). Paul is out of his normal location and still the snow haunts him. It is as if it has taken over his reality. The snow seems to follow him as if he had schizophrenia or even plain old insanity.

From the time of the Industrial Revolution to now, people have been on the hunt for wealth. Those that are poor wish for riches, those that are rich only want more. Willa Cather wrote “Paul’s Case” back in 1905 with this same idea in mind. The question has been asked since even before then, does money bring happiness? To those that have little would think that getting money will solve all their problems but those with much can attest to having other types of problems money cannot fix. In “Paul’s Case”, Willa Cather demonstrates that having monetary wealth does not always lead to a “better” life.

By using nature to describe the way he is feeling, paul is able to convey to the reader a sense of peace, and revitalization. The author also uses nature to create an image of what is occurring in the novel, so the reader can better picture it. When Paul and his comrades return to the lorries after battle, he says “ The rain becomes heavier. We take out waterproof sheets and spread them over our heads. The rain rattles down, and flows off at the sides in streams.” By describing the moment as rainy, the mood is quite dreary and

Returning, he came to the realization that Cordelia Street is New York City; it’s Chicago; it’s San Francisco; it’s Seattle. No matter where Paul decided to travel to, he would face people and experience obstacles extremely similar to those of Cordelia Street. There would still be people who reapply their daily facade to satisfy one another, people who fall from their once proposed ambitions, and places that will be full of nothing but uncertainty, misery, and heartbreak. Cordelia Street is one place plucked from a multitude of disappointments Paul faced, and would continue to, no matter how desperately he attempted to convince himself

glimpses of Paul trying to reach out and re-embrace his old thoughts and emotions and

In Paul’s world, “the nature always wore the guise of ugliness, that a certain element of artificiality seemed to him necessary in beauty” many of his actions are triggered by this view on life. In fact this prospective is what provoked him to become so self-destructive and withdraw and chiefly determines the ending. As mentioned above, indulging in art was only one of his ways of escaping the reality, death is another option. Much before his suicidal act in New-York, he devotes a whole night picturing what it would be like if his father accidentally kills him as a bugler. More disturbingly, he also imagines what happens if one day his father regrets not killing him. Paul is constantly bugged by fear, but never the less , he considers death as an ideal solution to life. Even at the finest moment of his life, when he prepares to go to New-york, Paul still buys a pistol so that he is entirely ready to take away his miserable life at any moment.

Paul always felt distant with his father. He believed his father would not love or want him anymore if he really knew Paul. Some nights “He would tell his father that he had no carfare and it was

Unaware of what Paul really desires, his father already has a goal in mind for his life. However, the role model his father has chosen as the embodiment of Paul’s future repulses him. While Paul’s paragon works his way to success, Paul has “no mind for the cash-boy stage” and only wants the triumph of wealth. His father’s aspirations cause Paul to believe he is a disappointment, which is seen when he entertains himself with the idea of his father wishing him dead. Because they amplify Paul’s sensation of drowning in the monotonous Cordelia Street, Paul tries often to escape the nightmare of his father’s dreams. To Paul, reality is just a bad dream he wants to wake up from. Searching for freedom, Paul tries to separate himself from the life of Cordelia Street even in the smallest things, like using violet water to get rid of the kitchen odours on his hands. At places like Carnegie Hall and the theatre, Paul is able to shake off the “lethargy of [the] deadening days” at home and school. In his false reality, Paul surrounds himself with artificial beauty because to him “the natural nearly always [wear] the guise of ugliness.” This is why wealth and luxury are so appealing to him - they are unnatural to him. Every rehearsal he attends allows his imagination to take over and provide temporary relief from his conditions. However, each brief escape increases the ghastliness of his

The protagonist in Willa Cather's short story, "Paul's Case," is adolescent named Paul. Paul's problem is that he has trouble following rules. Paul has a problem with various kinds of authorities including his teachers, principal, and father. From Paul's perspective, his problem is society. Society does not conform to him and repeatedly makes attempts on him to conform to it. Paul is disgusted, repulsed, and bored by middle class life in Pittsburgh. Paul's real problem is that he lacks perspective. This is a young man that is ferociously hungry for life outside of a small town or small city, which is partially the reason why he steals $1,000 and flees to New York City. Paul does not have an appropriate outlet through which to explore and channel his exuberant and odd energy. It is only when he is committing suicide by throwing himself in front of an oncoming train that he is capable of imagining a life both outside of the life he left behind, but not so far outside in the margins of society that cannot be a contributing member of society. Paul craves new experiences that expand his horizons and challenge him in ways unknown to him in his life back in Pittsburgh. His lack of perspective keeps him from being available to the myriad of choices he has in life but does not yet see. Ironically, it is only when his life is about to conclude when he realizes how much he wants to live and do. These feelings are often expressed by people who have

Fantasy is an escape from reality, but sometimes one cannot handle the real world and live in their fantasies. In the short story ¨Paul's Case¨ by Willa Sibert Cather, Paul, a strange teenage boy, is lost on the journey of life as he despises his life and really loves the theater, which is the only place where Paul really ¨lives¨. Paul uses goes to the theater as an escape from his life, and lets his imagination run wild. When he isn't in the theater, he despises the real world, and attempts to live in his fantasy by telling others completely false things about his life and how associated he is with fame when he isn´t. Paul falls in love with the theater and only feels alive there, ends up hating his real life, tries to live a life that

Cather was living in Pittsburgh; it is the only one of her stories with that city

He became lost in the music, plays, and art. While Paul was at home, he would dream about the life he believed himself to be living as “a morbid desire for cool things and soft lights and fresh flowers” (55). To Paul, people who enjoyed having the presence of flowers seemed to be of a higher class above the rest.

Paul 's Case was and still is one of Willa Cather 's best stories which reflects the point of view of an underprivileged young man in the old Pittsburg of the 1900s. Willa describes the main character Paul as an overwhelming mystery that no one seems to understand or accept. . Paul 's Case is the source of several different themes such as the dangers of misusing money and the addictiveness of art. The theme least analyzed in Cather 's short’s is the homosexual nature of the main character which explains the rejection and alienation from society that Paul presents in the story. Homosexuality has been controversial and strongly debated topic since the 19th. Today in the 21st-century Homosexuality is still around and is accepted by society more than ever before, although, there are still cases of discrimination. Daniel Ashley Pierce from Atlanta, Georgia was a victim of discrimination due to his sexual orientations. The theme of homosexuality in Willa Cather 's short story "Paul 's Case" can be compared to this specific event relating the social, family and personal issues that these two characters present.

Autumn is exemplified metaphorically as one who conspires with the sun, labors the land’s crops, and a talented musician. It personifies premature autumn when all naturalistic beings have ultimately reached maturity and face the inevitable life cycle of conception, birth, maturity, and death. It achieves this through its use of imagery, and figurative language such as personification. The overarching theme exemplifies autumn as an ambiguous abstract that is conducive to connoting several meanings in literature. It can be seen as maturity and wisdom. It can be seen as elderly age, but before morbidity and fatality, the harvest of a lifetime of learning and the imminent conclusion of existence.

Winter often symbolizes death, creating an ominous setting to begin the story. The connotation of the words “frigid” and “overcast” establishes a despairing tone. Therefore, the allusion to the events of 1975 that make him “what [he is] today” appears to be foreboding.