“Paul’s Case” by Willa Sibert Cather Paul, is a short story about how difficult it can be a homosexual. The story begins Paul being suspended from high school for a week. After his suspension, the teachers decide whether to let him back to the high school, and their mood is not improved because of his defiant manner in class towards them. The teachers grudgingly agree to re-admit him. However, Paul goes to Carnegie Hall of music in Pittsburg, where he enjoys working as an usher in a concert. When the concert ends, he does not go home. He follows the soloist to her hotel and imagines that he is with her inside. Returning home, he decides to enter through the basement to prevent confrontational conversation with his father. While he wants to be rich, he lacks the ambition to work. Rather, he escapes and visits a
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Paul’s father does not understand his aspirations towards luxury. This conflict makes him fear going home because he knows that he will quarrel with the father. Salda shows this when he says, “He dreads returning to his colorless life on Cordelia Street, and most of all dreads meeting his father, explaining why he is so late” (Salda 115). For this reason, he makes friends with a boy from Yale, who shows him the “night side of town” (Vanderlaan 435). This relationship leads to an internal conflict because Paul realizes that he likes him. To resolve this internal conflict, he steals money, spends it, and commits suicide.
The point of view of the story is third person limited. This is because the author only knows what Paul discerns. For example, the author does not explicitly declare Paul as a homosexual because she does not know his entire life. She only gives hints of his homosexuality by examining what she knows about his life. This leads the readers to believe that his death is due to his alienation by the Yale boy because of his homosexuality
Paul’s father does not understand his aspirations towards luxury. This conflict makes him fear going home because he knows that he will quarrel with the father. Salda shows this when he says, “He dreads returning to his colorless life on Cordelia Street, and most of all dreads meeting his father, explaining why he is so late” (Salda 115). For this reason, he makes friends with a boy from Yale, who shows him the “night side of town” (Vanderlaan 435). This relationship leads to an internal conflict because Paul realizes that he likes him. To resolve this internal conflict, he steals money, spends it, and commits suicide.
The point of view of the story is third person limited. This is because the author only knows what Paul discerns. For example, the author does not explicitly declare Paul as a homosexual because she does not know his entire life. She only gives hints of his homosexuality by examining what she knows about his life. This leads the readers to believe that his death is due to his alienation by the Yale boy because of his homosexuality