The Setting of Paul's Case Essay

Paul is one of the main characters in the story and we see in full detail how he as an individual and in his relationship with his wife is affected by the storm. He is married to Ellen and they have a baby boy. As the wind storm rages on, as if it never sleeps,

After Paul’s wife suicide, his life dramatically changes and he finds himself lost in a foreign, yet known, city. The despair drives Paul to find a shelter to comfort himself, far away from everything that could remind him of Rose, his now-deceased wife.

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.

     Paul is the main character in Willa Cather’s short story titled, “Paul’s Case”. Paul is a very troubled young man who believes he is destined for greatness. He was always in trouble at school and was never content with being himself. Paul had a very troubling past where his father would constantly emotionally abuse him and was always looked down upon at school. Paul feels that his is stuck where he his and cannot control his own future. One symbol used in this story was Cordelia Street. This is the street that Paul grew up on and he talks about this street as being boring and common, much like his life. Paul has a real problem with his past and how to escape it. Because

It is Paul’s worsening mental condition, that is a result of his removal from Carnegie Hall, that leads to the decision for Paul to end his life by jumping in front of a train. The emotional consequences of this traumatic event, such as impulsive behaviour, confusion, emotional helplessness and this emotional void, are the driving force behind Paul’s action. If not for this event Paul’s tragic descent into this state of depression

The demonstrating the literary device. On page 2,3 to summarize the quote, Paul was riding his bike down the street and heard a roar and it was a black car and man was hanging out of the passenger window, holding a long metal baseball bat in both hands , like a murder weapon. The guy with a bat leaned farther out the window. He pulled the bat back and up. Then he brought it forward in a mighty swing right at my head. Paul drove to the right ,landing on my face in just as the baseball bat smashed onto the mailbox exploding it right off its pole. That quote shows the change of Paul's perspective of that car and people. Another quote to show literary device evidence is on page 265.”let me ask you one thing mom. When you got home from the hospital that day did you white pain in Erik's hands?” she didn't hesitate. "yes.”” did you know what happened? ”yes” no one spoke for a couple of minutes. Dad continued to examine the legal pad in front of him. Then he said, "the doctors told us that you might never remember. And we figured that was the best way to handle the situation. "That quote shows growth and change. Is shows growth by learning that his family was lying to him. It shows the change because Paul can't trust his family or believe what they saw. Paul is having

Tangerine, a realistic-fiction novel, by Edward Bloor, tells about a boy that slowly uncovers dark truths about his new home in Tangerine County. The motif used throughout this novel is sight, motif is a symbolic detail that the writer adds in to set the theme or mood. Paul is challenged daily with his sight and what he can see what other people may not want to see. Through the motif of sight, Paul, the main character of the novel, has a growing understanding of his friends, family, and himself. To begin with, Paul experiences a growing understanding of his friends.

The mood for this book is gloomy. The author wants us to feel gloomy and sad when Paul’s son won’t talk to him and cuts Paul off from his life. Paul’s son cuts Paul off by moving to Ecuador. Another example when the author makes us feel gloomy is when Paul leaves Adrienne. Paul leaves Adrienne to be with his son who he barely talks to. It makes the reader feel very sad because Paul really loved Adrienne and wanted to stay with her.

In chapter 7-8 Paul is sent back home only to find out that his mother is very sick. When he found out that she’s sick, he starts to realize that he’s isn’t even apart of the world anymore. He feels lost and realized that the world was so different from how it is at camp. The similarity between the poem and the book is the theme of missing somebody or something that is important to you. The world doesn’t stay the same when you lose someone who you love.

Then I turned back and saw it_a black car_just an outline at first, then clear and detailed. It came right out of the sun”, page two. This shows that Paul lives a difficult life. Paul’s parents don’t believe him, and it’s depressing.

Analysis of "Paul's Case" by Willa Cather In Willa Cather’s short story “Paul’s Case,” Paul, the main character, lives in a world that he feels trapped in. As soon as Paul gets expelled from school and banned from the places in his life that fill him with joy, Paul decides to escape the life he lives in any way possible. Willa Cather’s use of figurative language and characterization provides a stark portrayal of the hopelessness stemming from feeling trapped in an oppressive life. The figurative language that the author uses to describe Paul’s gradual loss of hope of ever escaping his trap, Cordelia Street, provides an example of how life can trap and how it can destroy hope. One night, upon completion of his work as an usher at Carnegie Hall, Paul follows a singer to her

With the constant drought and dust storms on farm Ellen and Paul have been fighting back and forth and are not sure what they should do with the farm should the stay and wait? Or should they leave” but Paul cannot give Ellen the time and day to Ellen which forces her to leave for the best “But she was gone when he reach the house - the door was open, the lamp blown out, and the crib empty the dishes from their meal at noon were still on the table, she had perhaps begun to sweep, for the broom was lying in the middle” (71) when Paul finds the house empty he starts worrying what happen with Ellen and the decision Ellen makes to leave, caused Paul she truly had to leave for the good of the baby and herself. Paul also realizes what Ellen was saying before was truly meaningful “I’m afraid Paul, “she said suddenly “I can’t stand it any longer. He cries all the time. You will go, Paul – say you will (65) the fact Paul thought she was just being selfish and thinking of herself shows that when Ellen left she was leaving for a better life, she wanted go to the city and she was truly ““thinking of all of us – you, too. Look at the sky what’s happening are you blind?”(pg. 65 ross) obviously Paul wasn’t blind he relies the storm was going to pass and clear up in the next day but it was too late for Ellen she had to leave the Farm, but the decision resulted in the baby dyeing. “The child was cold. It had been

The school-rooms in the high school Paul attended became like a prison to him and he found himself displaying a different world to his peers to insure that they did not think he took their world very seriously. He created elaborate stories about his escapades at Carnegie Hall, where he spoke of “his acquaintance with the soloists who came to Carnegie Hall, his suppers with them and the flowers he sent them” (Cather 269). Paul did not experience any of these things. In fact, Cather writes how Paul often stood in front of the Schenley, a hotel where famous visitors to Pittsburgh stayed, imagining himself taking part in their comings and goings. One night he followed a singer he admired to the hotel and upon watching her enter the hotel, “He seemed to feel himself go after her up the steps, into the warm, lighted building, into an exotic, a tropical world of shiny, glistening surfaces and basking ease” (Cather 264). When his mind turned to the reality of his circumstances, he found himself drenched from the pouring rain, standing alone, outside the hotel, looking in. Paul lived his life largely detached from what was going on around him and this created a sense of contempt in him for what he perceived as his lackluster

Paul organized a country western concert in Bakersfield during the time that a major rodeo was in town. He made the following arrangements for the concert:

The silent snow begins to muffle his vision and on his walk home the sights are described in an artistic manner, such as the patterns of the bricks and the different garden walls. These images are easily viewed as beautiful, but even as this begins to shift to a less attractive description of the dirty sparrows, rotten fruit, and the trash in the gutter, it is treated with the same tone. By the end of the story, Paul's silent snow is growing to a roar, begging to be heard. It wants to tell him “the last, most beautiful and secret story” (Aiken 11) as it fully envelops him. visions that normally give him pleasure, now are viewed in a detached manner. The silence, just like speech lost its distinction, which adds to their ultimate collapse into uncertainty.