Paul’s Case: Alienation of Society
Have you ever felt truly alone? Have you ever felt uncomfortable with being yourself? How did you handle that? Hopefully, there was support and an understanding that all of humanity is important. During the time period of the 1800s and 1900s, homosexuality was not socially accepted. In Willa Cather’s short story entitled “Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament” written in 1905, the main character is a homosexual boy who eventually commits suicide. According to the author David A. Carpenter, “Throughout the story, beginning with the first paragraph, the boy is identified with flowers specifically the red carnation he wears in his lapel (at the end of the story he wears two but sacrifices one to the snow just before he commits suicide). So these glass cases, and especially the cut flowers preserved for a time within them against the snow, mean a great deal to the boy” (Carpenter 595). Sadly in the case of Paul, the alienation that he experienced from society had the ultimate negative effect. His suicidal death was directly related to the effect of how society treated him, his self-confusion, and how his personal obsession gave him false belief.
The way society treated him …show more content…
But this choice created a delicate artistic problem: Paul’s homosexuality must be hidden from the ‘common’ reader, yet revealed to readers concerned with sexual deviance. (Nardin 35)
Throughout the story, the Cather never states clearly that Paul is homosexual. It could be because of the time period the story was written. According to author Jane Nardin, “When she drafted ‘Paul’s Case’, Cather had already worked as a reviewer and a teacher of literature. She was aware of the ways in which sexual matters could and could not be treated in fiction”
Have you ever felt truly alone? Have you ever felt uncomfortable with being yourself? How did you handle that? Hopefully, there was support and an understanding that all of humanity is important. During the time period of the 1800s and 1900s, homosexuality was not socially accepted. In Willa Cather’s short story entitled “Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament” written in 1905, the main character is a homosexual boy who eventually commits suicide. According to the author David A. Carpenter, “Throughout the story, beginning with the first paragraph, the boy is identified with flowers specifically the red carnation he wears in his lapel (at the end of the story he wears two but sacrifices one to the snow just before he commits suicide). So these glass cases, and especially the cut flowers preserved for a time within them against the snow, mean a great deal to the boy” (Carpenter 595). Sadly in the case of Paul, the alienation that he experienced from society had the ultimate negative effect. His suicidal death was directly related to the effect of how society treated him, his self-confusion, and how his personal obsession gave him false belief.
The way society treated him …show more content…
But this choice created a delicate artistic problem: Paul’s homosexuality must be hidden from the ‘common’ reader, yet revealed to readers concerned with sexual deviance. (Nardin 35)
Throughout the story, the Cather never states clearly that Paul is homosexual. It could be because of the time period the story was written. According to author Jane Nardin, “When she drafted ‘Paul’s Case’, Cather had already worked as a reviewer and a teacher of literature. She was aware of the ways in which sexual matters could and could not be treated in fiction”