In “Paul’s Case” written by Willa Cather she tells us about Paul, a boy who is struggling with his hatred for his lower-class life. He feels as if the people in his life and the place he lives are holding him back from what he thinks he deserves in life, such as money, recognition, and upper-class status so he runs away.
The main conflict, although there are a few conflicts in the story is mostly an internal one. Paul loathes his life and really desires a life of wealth, prestige, and recognition. Paul is drawn to the theater, Carnegie Hall, and the actors with their wealth but he always gets pulled back by reality. Cather sees when a world of fantasy becomes too appealing, it can destroy people. The theme of the story is very clear with Cather’s ideas of symbolism.
Paul does not tell his own story. The narrator is third-person omniscient in the beginning of the story. It begins with the point of view of the teachers and Paul’s actions and thoughts. Early in the story Cather switches from third-person omniscient to third person limited and she focuses on Paul for the rest of the story.
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There are many symbolisms in “Paul’s Case” the first being the mention of different colors. Cather mentions yellow, blue, red, purple, black, and white. I think the colors represent Paul’s frustrations, desires, and feelings. Yellow represents the ugliness in Paul’s life. “Yellow walls” The story begins with his teachers and principle attacking his demeanor “within the bare, ugly walls of school.” Paul’s upstairs bedroom is also covered in a “dingy, old, horrible yellow wallpaper” Blue represents Paul’s fantasy world and allows him to live and revel in it.
Blue is the color most used to represent enchantment. Paul fantasizes about romance, the opera, wealth, and the finer things in life because they do not exist in his own life. At Carnegie Hall, in the picture gallery, Paul dreams of leaving Pittsburgh and he’s exhilerated by “Raffelli’s gay studies of Paris streets and an airy, blue venetian scene.” He sits down before a “blue Rico” and loses himself. His fantasy world also includes a “blue and white Mediterranean shore.”
Red represents how Paul wants to see himself as confident, strong, and in control of situations in his life. It symbolizes his rebellion to those he feels are under him. He needs to separate himself from society and feels he is better than everyone else, almost superior. By wearing red, he shows his defiance to society “he wore a red carnation in his buttonhole” or “his teachers felt, this afternoon, that his whole attitude was symbolized by his shrug and his flippantly red carnation flower.” The proud purchase of a new “red robe” while in New York City enabled Paul to express his defiance.
When he was at the Waldorf hotel the “red velvet carpet laid from door to street” that he could walk up and down represented his freedom. The color purple represented wealth and luxury. Once paul arrived in New York City he felt that what currently surrounded him explained who he was in life. “nobody questioned the “purple”; he had only to wear it passively.”
Paul is finally becoming the man he always dreamed of being and he doubted his past ever existed. “was he not, after all, one of the fortunate beings born to the purple.” The color black represents the last stage of Paul’s life, darkness, loneliness, and death. “Once the money runs out and the orchestra had suddenly stopped, he knew that the play was over.” “As Paul rides out of town, the black, dead weeds sticking through the snowing the passing fields” confirms his approaching death. “then because the picture-making mechanism was crushed, the disturbing visions flashed into black, and Paul dropped back into the immense design of things.” I think the author wrote beautifully about the colors and made it very clear as to what their meaning was in the story.
Another symbol in “Paul’s case” is the flowers. Carnations to Violets, the flowers that Paul wears and mentions in the story have significant meaning to him and expresses his character in different areas of the story. The red carnation represents Paul and his unwillingness to conform to society’s rules. In the beginning of the story Paul wearing a red carnation to meet his teacher and principle causes the adults to take its presence as Paul’s continued defiance against authority.
Windows are another example of symbolism. Paul spends much of the story looking through windows. He looks through the glass doors at the Schenley hotel where the German soloist is staying. Paul stares into the storefront window at bright flowers in Manhattan that he passes by in a carriage. The windows all seem to invite Paul in and allows him to fantasize about really being in that world.
The final symbol is the train. The train symbolizes the journey from what Paul has in his real life to what he wants in his fantasy life. He also uses the train as his weapon to take him on his journey from this life to the next by committing suicide from jumping in front of the train.
In conclusion, Paul became so addicted to a fantasy life of wealth, romance, and the finer things in life that he doubted his life in reality. When his real life finally catches up to him, after finding out that he robbed Denny & Carson’s company and that his father was in New York City to bring him home he felt his life was over and he committed suicide.
