Outer Rain Symbolism Of Rain Essay

5. How is the outer rain symbolic of Paul’s inner experience? (164) I believe the rain is symbolic of Paul’s dreams always being crushed, or unattainable. We know, “Paul had often hung about the hotel, watching the people go in and out, longing to enter and leave schoolmasters and dull care behind him forever” (Cather 164). We know Paul does not fit in at school, he tells lavish stories about events and friendships that are not real, and acts out towards his teachers. Paul feels trapped within his house, and within his life. Everything and everyone always “raining on his parade.” Standing outside the hotel he “wondered whether he were destined always to shiver in the black night outside, looking up at it” (Cather 164). Paul feels alienation …show more content…
It was obvious that he felt he did not fit in. It was obvious that his life at home was not great, and lost his mother at a young age. All of his deviant actions were a cry for help. Everything he did, he did for the attention of his peers, which is sad. He even said, “he had always been tormented by fear” (Cather 170). Whether it was fear of being poor, fear of never being liked, we may never know. But it was this quotation that made me feel sympathetic towards Paul, “It occurred to him that all the flowers he had seen in the glass cases that first night must have gone the same way, long before this. It was only one splendid breath they had, in spite of their brave mockery at the winter outside the glass; and it was a losing game in the end, it seemed, this revolt against the homilies by which the world is run” (Cather 174). Cather is comparing the struggling attempt of flowers surviving in the winter, to Paul’s attempt of survival living in a society that rejects him, just like winter rejects the flowers. Paul cannot help the way he is. Yes, he makes poor choice, but poor choices do not define you. It is sad that Paul felt so rejected and alienated from society that he felt the only way to get away from it was