Cather and History Willa Cather can properly be considered a historical novelist. She did not write adventure-packed historical romances in the vein of Sir Walter Scott or James Fenimore Cooper; rather, she moderated her romantic vision with a critical, realist edge and with experimental modernist techniques.

Willa Cather, in full Wilella Sibert Cather, (born December 7, 1873, near Winchester, Virginia, U.S.—died April 24, 1947, New York City, New York), American novelist noted for her portrayals of the settlers and frontier life on the American plains. “O Pioneers!”

Willa Sibert Cather (/ˈkæðər/; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and My Ántonia.

73 years (1873–1947)

During these years Willa receives her early education, attending grammar school and high school, although at first she was taught at home. Two more children, James (b. 1886) and Elsie (b. 1890) are born.

Answer and Explanation: In Cather’s “Paul’s Case”, Paul’s exact age is unspecified. However, it can be deduced that he is between the ages of 14 and 18, as he is still in high school.

Paul then reveals that he had bought a gun on his first day in New York City, and briefly considers shooting himself to avoid returning to his old life in Pittsburgh. Eventually, he decides against it and instead commits suicide by jumping in front of a train.

Paul’s problem drives him to take his own life, and simple adolescent arrogance does not lead to such drastic measures. My diagnosis is that Paul suffers from what contemporary psychiatry calls a “narcissistic personality disorder.” The term, “narcissism” comes, of course, from the Greek myth of Narcissus.

Paul feels contempt for his teachers, classmates, neighbors, and family members, all of whom he sees as hopelessly narrow-minded. He feels alienated from society because of his homosexuality and general disdain for other people. Paul’s self-destructive impulses intensify throughout the story.

He is using this stolen money to fund his spree in New York. What is “missing” from Paul’s hotel room at the Waldorf? All that’s missing are flowers, which Paul sends a bellboy out to buy.

One can describe Paul in “Paul’s Case” as a narcissist. According to author Rob Saari and several other psychologists and psychoanalysts, Paul seems to be a textbook narcissist, and he fulfills the criteria for a diagnosis with narcissism.

The narrator explains what has happened to make all this possible: Paul got a job with Denny & Carson’s, and when asked to take a deposit to the bank, he deposited only the checks and pocketed $1,000 in cash. He is using this stolen money to fund his spree in New York.

Paul’s Case Summary. “Paul’s Case” begins with adolescent Paul going before a panel of teachers and his Principal at Pittsburgh High School, where he’s been suspended for insolent behavior—the exact nature of which is never fully revealed.

He dreams about a life in which he, like the wealthy elite of Pittsburgh he so much admires, enjoys a lavish, opulent lifestyle. But because Paul is unwilling or unable to do anything practical that might actually help his dreams come true, he tries to realize his fantasy life by way of a shortcut—hence the theft.

Because Paul is so certain that he was destined for wealth, it comes as no surprise when he steals $1,000 in cash from his company.

Paul steals money from the firm and runs away to New York, where he buys himself elegant clothes and rents a luxurious room in the Waldorf Hotel. When he learns that his father is coming to find him, Paul believes that his idyllic life is over, and he commits suicide.

The theme of “Paul’s Case” is that when the world of illusion, of the superficial, becomes too appealing to us, it can destroy us. We can feel some sympathy for Paul as he rejects the narrow, hard-working, respectable, and Calvinist world he has grown up in.

He pictures himself trapped in a world of burghers, imprisoned within walls of horrible yellow wallpaper! As Paul rides out of town, the black, dead weeds sticking up through the snow in the passing fields signify his approaching death.

The red carnations Paul often wears in his buttonhole represent Paul himself. At the beginning of the story, when Paul wears a red carnation to meet his teachers and principal, the adults correctly interpret its presence as evidence of Paul’s continued defiance.

To Paul’s teachers, the carnation is a symbol of Paul’s flippancy and his lack of proper values. Paul recognizes and romanticizes this in the final scene of the narrative when he removes the wilted carnation from his coat and buries it in the snow. This act represents his acknowledgment of his own life ending.

Although Paul is in despair, as he jumps before the train, through his brain flashes “the blue of Adriatic water”, an image that indicates Paul’s undying ability to dream and appreciate the aesthetic.

One of the most well-known works of literature without a doubt is Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case.” The story is famous because of the richness of writing that Cather employs in making a formidable story one that can help people understand the current times and the world in which we live in especially regarding naturalism …

violets, violet water: Violets symbolize superiority because they are purple.

“Paul’s Case” is set in Pittsburgh in the early twentieth century, when the city was a major American center for the production of iron, steel, and glass. Living in Pittsburgh from 1896-1906, Cather understood her subject well.

Paul. The protagonist and antihero of the story. An idealistic, lying, suicidal young man, Paul fits in nowhere and looks down on nearly everyone he knows. He is class-conscious and reserves his approval for rich people and those involved in the art world.

What do Paul’s clandestine trips to the stock theater, his trip to New York, and his suicidehave in common? They are all places Paul goes to escape. Paul goes to the theater and New York to escape his life and to escape the boring ordinary world.

New York City Here is Paul in the very thick of things. If Pittsburgh to him seemed like a backwater horror of a city, New York is the center of the world. All the activity and energy of the nation is concentrated here, and it all has to do with wealth.

In the story “Paul’s Case,” Paul is irritated and wretched after the concert because: His real life is so different from his dream. The concert is an escape for him as always and highlights the difference between reality and the dreamworld of the singers.

Answer Expert Verified In “Paul’s Case,” Paul has to go work early because he liked looking at the pictures in the art gallery. He wanted to be early so that he has the chance to roam around the art gallery without being in too much crowd.

He could be a construction worker, the overalls and boots hint at this. Or a farmer, but farmers would not often bother to wash overalls often.