Pauls Case

Tension between an individual and society as seen in the short story “Paul’s Case”.

In the short story “Paul’s Case” by Willa Cather, Paul is a very confused man. He believes that he was born into a society that does not meet his standards. This belief causes tension and problems between him, his life and everyone associated with him. At first there is tension between Paul and his teacher at school, followed by a huge tension between him and his father that progresses to the dismal end of the story.

In the beginning of the story, the reader is introduced to Paul. He seems to be a typical and normal teenage boy although he is in trouble for causing an incident that occurred in the classroom. As the story progresses, the reader can gather that Paul is withdrawn and isolated from the world and the people in it, this is because of how he feels about the society he was brought up in and the problems it is causing between him and the people around him due to his want to be in another social group.

After her confrontation with Paul in the classroom, his teacher then became his adversary. After a meeting with the principal she is seen as his opponent throughout the rest of the book, and she feels badly for the way she thought of him. “His teachers left the building dissatisfied and unhappy; humiliated to have felt so vindictive toward a mere boy, to have uttered this feeling in cutting terms, and to have set each other on, as it were, in the gruesome game of intemperate reproach” (pg. 175). All of the teachers in the school could see that Paul was a little withdrawn and a bit strange, he had fits in class and they did not ask why, they just assumed that he was a bit different than the other children. After the meeting the teachers felt bad for having the thoughts and feelings that they had towards Paul. After a confrontation with his teacher it caused Paul to hate his life at school and dread going there every single day, which only made the tension between him and the teacher become more substantial. The next appearance of the teacher in the story is during her visit to Carnegie Hall, the theater in which Paul works as an usher where he feels as if that was “his place” and that when he is there he is in his element; he is home. “She betrayed some embarrassment when she handed Paul the tickets and a hauteur which subsequently made her feel very foolish" (pg. 176). She is humiliated at the sight of Paul because of the tension that she had created between the both of them. He sees her as unworthy to be there and that she is not of his stature because of what she had done to him that day at the school. “…what business had she with these fine people among these gay colors?” (pg.176). Paul believes that he belongs in the theater much more that she does even though they are from the same social group of people. She had just a right to be there as he does although in Paul’s mind it is seen much differently.

Paul's father has a very dominating personality and is very demeaning of Paul. He can see early in the story that Paul is living in a different reality other than the one in which he was born into and so, thinking that Paul might have a mental problem, his father then attempts to change Paul’s perspective so that it is like his own. As the father is so dominating, Paul is terrorized and this maintains tension between the father and son. "He felt that he could not be accosted by his father tonight; that he could not toss again on that miserable bed" (pg. 178). One night Paul thinks about coming home late and, rather than walking inside the front doors and having to face his father angrily waiting for him at the top of the stairs to scold and potentially hurt him, he makes the choice to sneak into the basement and sleep there for the night. He thought that this would be a much better idea and it might have fewer consequences. Having this tension there and constant stress between his father and Paul causes his father’s unruliness towards him and causes Paul to hate him and make any attempt to avoid him at all costs.

Throughout the story the tension builds as Paul goes to New York to be with the people of whom he believes are his own kind, with the people in his social class and of his stature. He never wants to return to the theater and believes that if he were to go home that “It was to be worse that jail” (pg. 185). He felt as if home was a prison and that it would be like going to a life