Suicide In Paul's Case By Willa Cather
Mark McLaughlin
4/29/2008
“Paul's Case” An Essay
“Paul's Case” by Willa Cather, is a case of a suicide. Paul, the main character of this story, displayed many warning signs to the readers of his psychological state of mind, but did he show the typical warning signs of a suicide? He most diffidently did not. This is not a text book case of suicide and is rather shocking. The typical psychological warning signs of a suicide, taken from, www.allexperts.com/psycology/suicid ,are acting withdrawn, reckless, abusing alcohol, suffering form a major loss, and verbal warnings. Of course, this is a generic list and Paul fits into most of this categories in some way or another, but he did not warns us verbally. On the contrary, in the story's dialog and in his thoughts, he makes us think he enjoys a certain way of life and deems everything else meaningless and dull. These makes the conclusion of this short story quite unexpected . Paul always had an idea of the kind of person he wanted to be. It is mentioned in the quote, “Everything [Paul's new clothes, and accommodations] was perfect; he was exactly the kind of boy he had always wanted to be”. This, “kind of boy”, is the clue reveling that in his mind, the image of himself had a …show more content…
Paul seamed to have a general idea of how people made money in New York. His thoughts are not that far off of the reality. The greedy will always find legitimate ways to steal, and he,”wondered. . . [if] there were honest men in the world at all”, after seeing all the people New York. There is always a scam, like selling flowers in the dead of winter. The beautiful illusion of flowers in a glass case was the lie. It is really coffin, protecting the beauty from the harsh outside elements of reality, “ and alluring that they blossomed thus unnaturally”. He very easily could be found another scam and brilliantly masterminded it, being the actor he was, and stayed in New York, living out his
4/29/2008
“Paul's Case” An Essay
“Paul's Case” by Willa Cather, is a case of a suicide. Paul, the main character of this story, displayed many warning signs to the readers of his psychological state of mind, but did he show the typical warning signs of a suicide? He most diffidently did not. This is not a text book case of suicide and is rather shocking. The typical psychological warning signs of a suicide, taken from, www.allexperts.com/psycology/suicid ,are acting withdrawn, reckless, abusing alcohol, suffering form a major loss, and verbal warnings. Of course, this is a generic list and Paul fits into most of this categories in some way or another, but he did not warns us verbally. On the contrary, in the story's dialog and in his thoughts, he makes us think he enjoys a certain way of life and deems everything else meaningless and dull. These makes the conclusion of this short story quite unexpected . Paul always had an idea of the kind of person he wanted to be. It is mentioned in the quote, “Everything [Paul's new clothes, and accommodations] was perfect; he was exactly the kind of boy he had always wanted to be”. This, “kind of boy”, is the clue reveling that in his mind, the image of himself had a …show more content…
Paul seamed to have a general idea of how people made money in New York. His thoughts are not that far off of the reality. The greedy will always find legitimate ways to steal, and he,”wondered. . . [if] there were honest men in the world at all”, after seeing all the people New York. There is always a scam, like selling flowers in the dead of winter. The beautiful illusion of flowers in a glass case was the lie. It is really coffin, protecting the beauty from the harsh outside elements of reality, “ and alluring that they blossomed thus unnaturally”. He very easily could be found another scam and brilliantly masterminded it, being the actor he was, and stayed in New York, living out his