Symbolism In Paul's Case

The symbolism in "Paul’s Case" is portrayed through the weather, as well as through flowers. The different kinds of weather portray the cold world around him that is trying to overtake him, while the flowers represent himself and his desire for beauty and riches, and his attempts to thrive in his world. After Paul goes to Carnegie Hall, admires the Schenley, and walks home, it is raining -- “The moment he turned into Cordelia Street he felt the waters close about his head.” (238) Here, the water of the rain symbolize reality, as it entraps him in his reality, with him unable to escape. This symbol is further developed when Paul is in New York, and discovers that his father had found him out. He realizes that”...the tepid waters of Cordelia

Street were to close over him finally and forever.” (248) Again, this references the raining he experienced that night with his feelings of being able to escape reality. The quote evokes an image of drowning, as if the rains of reality are unescapable. The rain and water imagery are

associated with Cordelia Street, his “home” he does not feel at home at, since there, he is reminded of a dull reality that he cannot escape from. In New York, it is snowing, and the snow of New York interacts with the flower symbolism. The flower -- specifically Paul’s red carnation is first mentioned while he is talking to his teachers: “HIs teachers felt that his whole attitude was symbolized by his shrug and his flippantly red carnation flower, and they fell upon him without mercy…” (235) The red carnation, to the teachers, seems inexcusably out of place, and it is all the more reason to punish him. They attack Paul all the more viciously for his red carnation. The red carnation is out of place to the teachers, just as Paul is out of place to the world. His existence, like the red carnation, is attacked all the more viciously for his existence, and how it defies the norms of society, and rebels against what his world has dictated for him. Later, as Paul is walking in New York, he notices that “The snow had somewhat abated… Here and there on the corners whole flower gardens blooming behind glass windows, against which the snowflakes stuck and melted; violets, roses, carnations, lilies-of-the-valley -- somehow vastly more lovely and alluring that they blossomed thus unnaturally in the snow.” (246) The flowers’ survival of the snow through the glass is a sign to Paul that he too, can survive the cruel world he lives in, and can fulfill his desires, and can succeed in rebelling against the world. In New York, he is rebelling against his old life, and is fulfilling his desires -- albeit temporarily. However, to him, this dream he is living, of finally being”rich” and enjoying the beauty of music as he pleases seems to be a final renouncement of the world around him, and his embrace of his dreams as reality. He too can survive, behind the glass, where he can pretend to be what he is not, and can sustain himself against the world that dictates his bleak future. As his father finds

him out, Paul, in a panic, takes a train out of New York into Pennsylvania. There, he buries his red carnation before committing suicide. “The carnations in his coat were drooping with cold, he noticed; all their red glory over. It occurred to him that all the flowers he had seen in the show windows that first night must have gone the same way, long before this. It was only one splendid breath they had, in spite of their brave mockery at the winter outside the glass. It was a losing game in the end, it seemed, this revolt against the homilies by which the world is run. Paul took one of the blossoms carefully from his coat and scooped a little hole in the snow, where he covered it up. Then he dozed awhile, from his weak condition, seeming insensible to the cold.” (250) Paul realizes, before his death, the flowers he had seen in New York in brave rebellion against the world could not survive, even when behind the glass. Reality is inescapable, and it is foolish to do so; Paul inevitably has to face reality sometime, and his attempt at escaping the world’s fate for him fails dramatically. He could not rebel against the world, and could not survive in the end by his dreams he had conjured for himself, just as the red carnations and the flowers in New York could not withstand the cold. He buries the flower, signifying the death of himself and of his dreams. He then sleeps, seeming “insensible to the cold.” He seems to be succumbing to the cold around him, unable to survive in the way he wants to, in fulfillment of his dreams. Upon waking, he throws himself under a train, committing suicide, as his reality becomes more unbearable than death is, and he feels that he would rather die than to live in a world in which the dreams of his cannot flourish; he is destined to die along with his dreams, as he cannot adjust to the fate the world has assigned to him. The water in Pittsburgh, contrasted with the snow in New York, serves to highlight their effects on

Paul. The water drowns, as his reality seems to sweep away his dreams, while the snow freezes him and makes him whither away, portraying that he, too, cannot survive this weather, either. The water traps him while the snow freezes him. The snows of New York interacts with Paul’s flower. As he watches the flowers behind the glass wall, he seems encouraged by their “brave mockery at the winter outside the glass.” He manages to survive in New York, where he feels that he too, is protected by the glass. He realizes, that besides his protection, the flowers will die regardless, and he too, dies, his escape to New York only able to sustain himself for a little longer, before his death. There is some correspondence to the seasons through the weather as well. While Paul is still in Pittsburgh, it is mentioned that the November chill has been broken by a last flash of autumnal summer. If the seasons correspond to a lifespan, Paul seems to be nearing his life’s end, except that it seems to have been delayed by this burst of autumnal summer -- foreshadowing his trip to New York, which delays his oncoming destiny further, as he is still near the end of life, but experiences new vitality in New York. However, in New York, it changes, and winter seems to be approaching, through the snow. He finally succumbs to the snows of winter as he kills himself. Therefore, the weather symbolism of rain and snow, its correspondence to the seasons, and its interactions with Paul’s flowers all exemplify how Paul cannot survive in the world that he uselessly revolts against.

“Hunters in the Snow” and “Paul’s Case” both rely heavily upon weather symbolism, especially that of snow. The snow in both stories represents the cold, uncaring world around them, and how this world seems to want to freeze its inhabitants. Tub in “Hunters in the

Snow” attempts to stay warm in the cold to survive, while Paul in “Paul’s Case” attempts to escape the cold.

Tub survives in the end, finding warmth in the kindling of his friendship with Frank, but Paul does not, succumbing to the cold and whithering away in the cold. The symbolism in “Hunters in the Snow” is more spread out, however, while the symbolism in “Paul’s Case is more centralized.” The snow in “Hunters in the Snow is spread out throughout the book, and pervades throughout all of Kenny, Frank, and Tub’s travels. The freezing snow outside is contrasted with the warmth on the inside, where Frank and Tub are able to derive warmth by being inside and by bonding with each other. Cold and warmth interact with each other and contrast each other, contrasting the cold world around them and the warmth that Frank and Tub derive by opening up to each other. “Paul’s Case” uses symbolism throughout different parts of the story. First, it is raining in Pittsburgh, portraying how reality is drowning Paul, making him feel that he cannot escape his world. Next comes the snow in New York, that is finally able freeze him to death, as he stumbles upon the realization that he and his dreams cannot flourish in such a cold world. The flower, all the while, is spread throughout the story, and is associated both with himself and his dreams. His teachers first admonish him all the more harsher for the red carnation’s presence, it is said that he yearns for “fresh flowers,” he orders for flowers to be brought up to his hotel room in New York, he walks past thriving flowers behind a glass window in New York, and he finally buries a red carnation right before his death. The weather of this story comes in two distinct phases of rain and snow, while the flower is present throughout the story. The symbolism is centralized in that the flower is only meant to represent Paul and his dreams, and is constantly reinforced through the whole story, while the weather

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centralized in that there are distinct separate areas in which they are in the story, and are both meant to represent different aspects of Paul’s world. The weather of “Hunters in the Snow,” on the other hand, is much more vague, and can be meant to represent different things: the coldness of the outside world, the coldness of the relationship between Kenny, Frank and Tub, and the coldness within Tub, the lack of the warmth of bonding in his life. The symbolism in “Paul’s Case” is more varied as well. “Hunters in the Snow” employs the warm-cold dichotomy as its symbols; “Paul’s Case” employs rain, snow, the seasons, and flowers as its symbols. However, the meanings of both stories as a whole lends to their similarities, as both reinforce the idea that the cold world drives people to find fulfillment outside of the current life that they are living in.