Paul's Case Character Analysis

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Paul is a main character in the story called Paul’s Case, written by Willa Cather. Paul is an outcast, he tries his best to fit into social situations, but always falls short. He struggles with personal connections because he is addicted to artwork, money, and fame. He is a liar, a thief, and a suffer of extreme self-centeredness and suicidal thoughts. And because of these characteristics, he feels like he is on the outside of a world which he does not fit into. So, he creates his own world, that is why he loves fancy items as much as an alcoholic loves booze. Though he does not want to be famous himself, he just wants to be rich so that he can watch famous people or look at expensive artwork. Throughout the story, his cravings for this expensive lifestyle progress. He started out working for an art gallery, and when he was fired, he ended up working for a stock broker, and one day when Paul was taking a check to the bank to deposit it for the broker, he ran off …show more content…

Based on Pavlov’s theory of strong and weak nervous systems, which is if someone with a strong nervous system has a better chance of tolerating higher intensities of stimulation, while a weak nervous system a person has a lower chance of tolerating high intensities of stimulation (Cloninger, 2013, p. 176), Hans Eysenck expanded to say that there are three more factors of personality, other than a tolerance towards stress. Extraversion is the basically the same thing as strong nervous system, where a person is still social during high stressful times (Cloninger, 2013, p. 177). Neuroticism is the second factor, where a person tends to be extremely emotionally during times of stress (Cloninger, 2013, p. 178). And lastly, is psychoticism where a person does not conform to cultural norms and can be classified as a social deviant during stressful times (Cloninger, 2013, p.