In Willa Cather’s Paul’s Case, is about a young boy that is depressed about his life, and loves his job in a theater, because he He is looking for fame, wealth and is not interested in his studies; when he is discovered by his lies he ends up committing suicide. The meeting between his teachers and Paul shows his indifferent and rebellious attitude. There is no good relationship between Paul and his father. He is not happy with himself and does not accept his reality. In his attempt to live a false life he makes many mistakes. He does not enjoy being in school or at home, he just feels good in the theater where he works and in New York. The theme in this story is the American dream. The subthemes are: materialism, ambition, rebellion, adolescence, …show more content…
superficiality. that when we get excited about the superficial in life, and we do this what is primordial and attractive to us, it can destroy us. Paul’s “attitude was symbolized by…red carnation flower” at the beginning of the story.
It was winter, and carnation cannot have grown in the snow, Paul was in the misguided place, red represented the sadness and disillusionment opposite his teachers. When Paul enters the faculty room, he tries to outwit the teachers by dressing up for the interrogation just as criminal’s dress for judgment. He represents a past life which he yet holds on to. He entered the room "suave and smiling" He thought he looked good as he was dressed. The opal brooch and the red carnation are Paul’s trying to pretend to have class. They distract the teachers from the defects on his jacket, represents the way Paul sees himself. The teachers compare Paul's eyes with those of a drug user, specifically belladonna, but then they describe a "glassy glitter" in his eyes, "which that drug does not produce." There is least a suggestion that Paul might be using drugs, he imagine his world with "a shuddering repulsion for the flavorless, colorless mass of everyday existence." He equates his depression to the go down of a Dubach. The glassy glitter in his eyes represents the "something that no-one understood about …show more content…
Paul." He likes to work in the theater because he wants the glamour of the actors. In his way to this enchanting place he is “whistling the Soldier’s Chorus from Faust”. As he’s waiting he enters the gallery “always deserted” symbolized his loneliness, look around at “Raffelli’s gay studies…an airy blue Venetian” like the perfect blue sky of his dreams. He continues walking and looks at “Venus of Milo” it is the goddess of love, and represents that he is living a loveless life. He is very close to the world of his dream. “the fine rain. The window of its twelve stories” the rain is a way to get rid of the life he hates, the great desire to be part of this glamourous life is behind “glass door”. In another hand, Paul describes his house with disgust: the ugly sleeping chamber, the old bathroom, the cracked mirror and the dripping spigots.
The cracked mirror represents Paul's distorted image of himself. He remorse horrible things he has done in the past. When Paul looks at himself in the mirror, he is reminded of his imperfections that are symbolized in the cracks. He does not like being at home “horrible yellow wall-paper” the yellow color symbolized the disappointment of living there. He thinks he is living a wrong life and believes in predestination, which is symbolized by the image of “John Calvin”. He is disappointed and frustrated to live in that neighborhood “he felt the water is close above his head”, and it is in “Pittsburgh” which represented the working class and it is the cradle of steel. He was looking for a compression from his Father but he did not find it, his rebelliousness was a desperate cry seeking love. When he is in the baseman "distrustful towards the darkness". Paul is a reckless teenager full of dreams and illusions described as "autumnal
summer". The "eastbound train" through the "January snowstorm" symbolizing how He is hurrying to begin his New York escape. The "long dead grass and the dried weed stalks" are symbols of reminders of home and death. The lanterns from the houses and the lights are symbols of the soft light that Paul envisions in the world of your dreams. he does not want to live a lie anymore “the flowers came” even though the flowers do not grow in winter. As the time past of the best days ever “golden days”. His father is looking for him and does not lose hope of finding him. Unfortunately, he began to feel desperate with thoughts of taking his own life like "looking at the revolver", death was his only solution "dead grass ... singularly black". His deep depression and sadness about him "brought the red flowers" Paul knows, there is no hope so he “scooped a little hole in the snow” represents his burial, all along the carnation represented Paul. He tries to grow but in the end, he would never last, the forces of nature are greater than him. When Paul is waiting in the snow, he buries his red carnation announcing his own funeral. The red carnation represents the life he expected to live, but once he spent the money he had stolen and could not return home, the red carnation died and so did he. Paul falls asleep in the snow, his hope to die in one of his dreams, but the train woke him up. Paul's body was thrown quickly through the air, representing the blue tide on which he always dreamed one day to float. .
The theme of this play is centered around time; the value of the little time we have been given and how that time should be used to live for what is right and what truly matters.
In his first year of school, he is only interested in Megan Murray, the first girl Paul has ever lusted for. However in his second year, he meets Rosie. Rosie watches him practise in the Music Room during lunch. Initially, Paul feels intimidated by Rosie as he thinks that she is too much like himself. He is afraid that he now has competition as she is the other smart kid in the class, yet he still chooses to teach her some piano. Choosing to spring lines from Herr Keller’s teachings, he makes himself sound smarter and more accomplished at the piano than he actually is. The characters show the development of Paul through the way they act with Paul and the language and content used in conversation. This enables us to see Paul’s “plumage” being presented to the world as Paul develops through time to become the swan that he is at the end of the novel.
the play. It looks at the person he is and the person he becomes. It
In Silent Snow, Secret Snow, Paul’s imagination takes him to his new journey, a pleasant one. “Ah, how heavenly, too, the first beginnings—to hear or feel – for could he actually hear it?—the Silent Snow, the Secret Snow” (Aiken 20). He’s enjoying every moment of his new experience which brings him peace. As the snow mounted, he thought, the world would become peaceful and more silent which to him is a new
In "Paul's Case" by Willa Cather, a young man named Paul is unhappy with his home and school life. He is happiest when he is at Carnegie Hall, where he works as an usher. When he is not physically at Carnegie Hall, his thoughts remain there causing his school work to suffer. When his father finds out about his problems in school he has Paul banned from Carnegie Hall, taken out of school, and put to work. One day, while on his way to make the company's deposit, Paul decides to take some of the money and go to New York to experience the life he feels he was destined for. Unable to cope with the punishment for taking the money he commits suicide. The central idea in this story is that it takes patience and perseverance to accomplish your dreams, and you should not give up on them.
His position in life can be regarded as symbolic of every black male struggling to provide for his family by any means necessary. Although Walter has a job, it seems inadequate for his survival. As a result, he has become frustrated and lacks good judgement. Throughout this play, Walter searches for the key ingredient that will make his life blissful. His frustrations stem from him not being able to act as a man and provide for his family and grasp hold of his ideals to watch them manifest into a positive situation.
Analysis of Paul's Case by Willa Cather. Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case” is a story about a young 16 year-old man, Paul, who is motherless and alienated. Paul’s lack of maternal care has led to his alienation. He searches for the aesthetics in life that he doesn’t get from his yellow wallpaper in his house and his detached, overpowering father figure in his life. Paul doesn’t have any interests in school and his only happiness is in working at Carnegie Hall and dreams of one day living the luxurious life in New York City.
While everyone has a different interpretation of the "American Dream," some people use it as an excuse to justify their own greed and selfish desires. Two respected works of modern American literature, The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman, give us insight into how the individual interpretation and pursuit of the "American Dream" can produce tragic results. Jay Gatsby, from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, built his "American Dream" upon the belief that wealth would win him acceptance. In pursuit of his dream, Gatsby spent his life trying to gain wealth and the refinement he assumes it entails. Jay Gatsby, lacking true refinement, reflects the adolescent image of the wealthy, and "[springs] from his Platonic conception of himself" (Fitzgerald 104).
The theme of the play has to do with the way that life is an endless cycle. You're born, you have some happy times, you have some bad times, and then you die. As the years pass by, everything seems to change. But all in all there is little change. The sun always rises in the early morning, and sets in the evening. The seasons always rotate like they always have. The birds are always chirping. And there is always somebody that has life a little bit worse than your own.
Each character in the novel has their own interpretation of the ‘American Dream – the pursuit of happiness’ as they all lack happiness due to the careless nature of American society during the Jazz Age. The American Dreams seems almost non-existent to those whom haven’t already achieved it.
Money is a powerful thing, but allowing it to take control of your life, how you feel and what you do with it can end in terrible consequences. The economic theory states that all human endeavors are driven by money/desire for power or position. The use of the economic theory can be helpful to better understand “Paul’s Case”, by Willa Cather.
The play, focused on Paul Poitier, a confident young man who cons a wealthy New York family to gain their sympathies and support, culminates in his brutal arrest and revelation of the naivety of rich, white people. While conversing with Ouisa about personally bringing him down to the police station, he notes, “Paul: I’ll be treated with care if you take me to the police. If they don’t know you’re special, they kill you. Ouisa: I don’t think they kill you. Paul: Mrs. Louisa Kittredge, I am black.” This exchange between Paul and Ouisa reveals the underlying tensions between the police and the black community due to the prior brutality inflicted upon blacks to control them. Paul explores the corruption that exists within the American police system by suggesting that the elite can escape brutality, especially for those associated with them. In order to escape death,
...years later, it becomes clear that for all the emphasis put on art, on creation, and on mass production—nature is central to our human experience. We can symbolize this natural connection with art—but the art itself always harkens back to something that elicits an emotional response from the viewer. For Leontes, a statue of his presumably deceased wife, Hermione triggers a sorrowful reaction. Art indeed embellishes life as it does with flowers, but we are always working from some perspective, some emotion, before we are merely creating art. “The Winter’s Tale” takes on the challenge of investigating whether or not art can in fact breathe outside the womb of nature, and as we witness art break down, and nature hold the characters together, it becomes resoundingly clear that art seeks to react to nature, but that it cannot work without maintaining nature at its core.
In today’s society the term “American Dream” is perceived as being successful and usually that’s associated with being rich or financially sound. People follow this idea their entire life and usually never stop to think if they are happy on this road to success. Most will live through thick and thin with this idealization of the “American Dream” usually leading to unhappiness, depression and even suicide. The individual is confused by society’s portrayal of the individuals who have supposedly reached the nirvana of the “American Dream”. In the play “Death of a Salesman” Willy thinks that if a person has the right personality and he is well liked it’s easy to achieve success rather than hard work and innovation. This is seen when Willy is only concerned how Biff’s class mates reacted to his joke of the teachers lisp. Willy’s dream of success for his son Biff who was very well liked in High School never actually became anything. Biff turned into a drifter and a ranch worker. In the play “Seize the Day” Tommy who is financially unstable also pursues the idea of getting to the “American Dream” and becoming wealthy. He foolishly invests his last seven hundred dollars and eventually loses it leaving him broke and out of work. In both plays following the American Dream is followed in different characters and in both the characters are far away from it leaving them broke and forgotten by almost everyone.
In the first stanza, the "I am not cruel, only truthful" phrase reveals the mirror's personality and charter. Unlike humans a mirror cannot judge her with opinions. Sylvia Plath uses onomatopoeia to give the mirror human characteristics. On line five she writes "The eye of a little god, four-cornered" which shows that the mirror is given God-like powers over the women. It becomes almost an obsessive relationship between the mirror and the women because she looks to the mirror for comfort only to confronted with the truth about your youth wasting away.