Willa Cather's Short Story Paul's Case Essay

“Paul’s Case,” a short story written by Willa Cather, is widely known and taught throughout English classes ranging from high school to college level. This is perhaps Cather’s most famous and reprinted short story, and for good reason. The main character, Paul, is constantly being developed through the story leaving the reader trying to keep up. There are also countless other aspects of “Paul’s Case” that call for attention. Two of the most significant aspects that the author uses are foreshadowing and symbolism. Throughout the text, Cather does a magnificent job of using the elements of foreshadowing and symbolism to allude to Paul deciding to commit suicide.

"Paul's Case", by Cather, is a story in which Paul, an adolescent, is trying to find himself. Unlike Hemingway, Cather exposes the influence of a stable but cold environment to be detrimental to one's well being. Paul's dilemma begins with school, a place he is not fond of. His teachers have a strong disliking of Paul. This is seen at his readmittance inquiry "… they fell upon him without mercy, his English teacher leading the pack" (161). Paul's inner struggle is recognized by only one teacher, the drawing master. "The drawing master had come to realize that, in looking at Paul, one saw only his white teeth and forced animation of his eyes" (162). He also noted the time Paul had fallen asleep in class, "what a white, blue veined face it was; drawn and wrinkled like an old man's about the eyes, lips twitching even in his sleep" (162). This observation clues us that Paul is not a happy-go-lucky teenager; there is an inner battle going on.

Paul's Case is about a young, Calvinist man who did not feel that he belonged in his life. He lived on Cordelia Street in Pittsburgh, PA. Cordelia Street was littered with cookie cutter houses, suburbanite-like city-dwellers, and a general aura of despair. Paul's room was no different. Paul felt that his abusive father, uncaring teachers, and classmates who misunderstand him aren't worthy of his presence and company. One of the reasons Paul may not have fit in was because there is a chance that he was learning disabled.

To begin with, Paul is counseling having flashbacks about his family and secrets that are untold. The author

Have you ever wondered how stressed out a person can be? Thats Paul he deals with a lot in this book. He has his mind everywhere and no one understands him, he doesn't understand people. In Edwards Bloors novel Tangerine, Paul's choices and the consequences of his choices affected the development of him because he wasn't able to fit in with his peers or understand what was wrong with the people in his community. This essay will be about how Paul’s life is good,bad,and different.

shows that Paul did not have the courage to stand up for himself and that he was bullied because of his thick glasses. For most of his life, Paul feels like a coward because he doesn’t stand up for himself. On page 263, the quote regarding a flashback about Paul’s glasses, “I turned around and saw Vincent Castor. He was holding a can of spray paint. Then I felt Erik grab me from behind, easily pinning both of my arms with one of his..

Yet another example of the brutalization and dehumanization of the soldiers caused by the war occurs during Paul’s leave. On leave, Paul decides to visit his hometown. While there, he finds it difficult to discuss the war and his experiences with anyone. Furthermore, Paul struggles to fit in at home: “I breathe deeply and say over to myself:– ‘You are at home, you are at home.’ But a sense of strangeness will not leave me; I cannot feel at home amongst these things. There is my mother, there is my sister, there my case of butterflies, and there the mahogany piano – but I am not myself there. There is a distance, a

the love and care he unknowingly needs. Paul takes on roles that disguise his own traits and turns him into what he believes to be a person nobody can say no to. When he takes on these roles, he

Paul details her daily life living in the factory as a letter; while the format of the first source differs from the other two, the information presented is supported by the pictures. This letter is an eyewitness account of child labor conditions as it is a letter. The format of this source allows the reader to learn more about the emotions of the child laborers. Additionally, it is less up to interpretation as the information is written in clear language. With the two picture sources, the emotion, scene, and thoughts of those portrayed must be determined by the viewer.

Paul's father had abused him emotionally, and probably physically, throughout Paul's life. He did so much to Paul's flagging self-image that he had to boast to others to make himself feel big, when he felt tiny inside. When he finally achieved that "bigness" that he always wanted, the glamour of "the good life," his father found him out and took that away from him, or rather, made Paul give it up. This made Paul feel even smaller and made him feel that he would be better off dead. So Paul decided to make his life "better off" and

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

In Paul’s true reality he has a lack of interest in school. His disinterest in school stems

Paul mirrors Richard Rodriguez’s scholarship boy’s lack of imagination by plagiarizing a speech from Groton’s graduation ceremony from Catcher in the Rye, while in the Kitteridge’s apartment, Paul says “The imagination. That's God's gift to make the act of self-examination bearable”. (Six Degrees of Separation 42) Paul feels so discouraged by his previous life-style, he feels the need to create a new self in order to be happy with his life. Paul’s journey to succeed in accumulating into the higher class is bittersweet because Paul lack the understanding of what success means and the cost it will take in his life.

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

Paul`s life is in chaos as he is attempting to uproot his entire life by creating a façade to appeal to the white upper-class. It is this façade, however, that gives Paul control in his life as he is finally able to belong to a family with the Kittredges. This imbalance in Paul`s life causes him to be an Other because he has changed his entire life to simply swindle wealthy whites.