“Paul’s Case” SG page 1
“Paul’s Case” by Willa Cather
pp. 34-51 of Dover Thrift Paul’s Case and Other Stories
1.
What are some of the unique characteristics Paul displays in his interview before the faculty and principal, including his exit
therefrom?
2.
What do Cather’s use of the terms “hysterical brilliancy,” “peculiarly offensive in a boy,” and “hysterically defiant manner”
– all on the first page of the story – all suggest about Paul and what his “case” might be? (Hint: Look up the derivation of
“hysteric.”)
3.
Contrast Paul’s attitude with that of his teachers after the interview is over. How do they feel? How does he feel?
4.
What appeals to Paul about his job as an usher? Why would he rather do this than, say, be a newspaper boy or work as a
store clerk?
5.
Fill out the following chart with details about Paul’s HOME life, his SCHOOL life, and his life at CARNEGIE HALL / and
at the THEATRE with Charlie Edwards. Put in such details as smells, sights, colors, sounds, activities, etc. (You will need to
read through page 43 to complete this.)
HOME
SCHOOL
CARNEGIE HALL
THEATRE
“Paul’s Case” SG page 2
6.
Describe the scene after Paul came home on p. 39. What did he imagine his father might do? What did he imagine his father
might wish?
7.
Paul’s father held before him a particular young man–a clerk–as a model. What attributes of the model young man won the
father's approval? Are the attributes worthy of imitation? Explain.
8.
What does Cather mean by saying that Paul “was interested in the triumphs of these cash boys who had become famous,
though he had no mind for the cash-boy stage”? (p. 41)
9.
Some critics have said that Paul may have had a learning disability? If so, what was the disability, and how did it manifest
itself?
10. During his youth, we are told, Paul had grown “quite accustomed to lying.” What were two reasons given (p. 34, p. 48) for
his resorting to lies?
What do you suppose would have been the consequences of his telling the truth? (As in, “Gosh, Dad, I was just down at the
theatre with Charlie Edwards. You know, being in his dressing room is like a fairy tale – it’s got all the allurement of a secret
love for me!” [p. 42]).
11. What is it that finally drives Paul to New York?
12. In New York at last, everything was perfect; Paul “was exactly the kind of boy he had always wanted to be.” What kind of
life did Paul want to lead? What kind of person did he want to be?
Why did he wonder why there were even honest men in the world at all on p. 47?
Why was it “impossible for anyone to humiliate him” in New York?
“Paul’s Case” SG page 3
13. Vassar College professor and author Paul Russell has written:
“Paul’s Case” [is] a story often taught in American high schools as the tale of a sensitive, artistic
young man who flees the constrictions of provincial life in order to experience in New York city all his pentup aesthetic longings for art, beauty, and the artificial world of the theatre. But closer inspection reveals Paul
to be steeped in the coded signs of the homosexual, from his red carnation to his apparent fling with a wild
boy from San Francisco. … Cather herself would define as one of the principal qualities of her fiction “the
inexplicable presence of the thing not named.”
What is meant by “coded” in the above paragraph?
Where are there other signs in the story, besides the ones Russell has written above, that Paul’s “case” is that of having a
minority sexual orientation, or at least exhibiting gender non-conformity? Pay close attention to the words Cather uses to
describe Paul’s actions, thoughts and personality. Give brief quotations where possible.
14. What he learned from the newspaper finally determined Paul to commit suicide. Why? Instead of being arrested, what was
going to happen to Paul if he were taken back to Pittsburgh, and why did he consider this “worse than jail”?
15. Compare Paul’s “case” to that of Maggie Johnson in Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. In the chart below,
compare the two.
Paul
Advantages in life
Disadvantages in life
Goals
Methods of trying to
achieve goals
Possible alternatives to
the above
Maggie