Comparing Traumatic Experiences In Paul's Case And A Rose For Emily

It is important to go through trials and challenges in life because they help us grow, but truly traumatic experiences can have a serious negative impact on one's life. Whether it is losing someone or struggling with internal conflicts, such events can seem impossible to let go of and lead to personal downfall. In "Paul's Case" and "A Rose For Emily," Willa Cather and William Faulkner demonstrate that traumatic events are the catalyst for a gloomy future through the characters dealing with death and suicide, experiencing social isolation, and becoming disconnected from reality.

When faced with traumatic events it can be caused by or lead to death. This idea can be found when magnifying the main character Paul, In Paul’s case. Throughout Paul’s

In Paul's Case, Paul experiences being outcast from his community as a result of his behavior and aspirations. This can be detected in the scene where Paul is called into the principal's office and berated for his behavior, causing him to feel like an outcast. The narrator of the story puts this into the perspective of the teachers stating that "[they] left the building dissatisfied and unhappy; humiliated to have felt so vindictive toward a mere boy" (Cather 8). Paul had dreams and aspirations of standing out and showing others who he truly is, but these dreams were quickly put down. Although he wanted to be himself, he also wanted to be accepted. Because these wishes were put down so brutally from a young age, they left an impression on his personality that set him up for a terrible ending. An example of paul wanting to be himself was when "he was always considerably excited when he dressed, twanging all over to the tuning of the strings and the preliminary ourishes of the horns in the music room,” however, it led to nothing but being “beside himself,” and people “telling him that he was crazy and they put him down on the floor and sat on him" (Cather 1). Paul’s desire for a more glamorous and exciting life further sets him apart from those around him. This sets him up in more situations where "matters

Both characters attempt to hide from the burdens of their everyday life and begin to become delusional and neglect their surroundings. Paul loses touch with reality in a few ways throughout the story. One example is his excessive daydreaming and fantasizing, which leads him to create a false reality for himself. Paul eventually becomes so out of touch that "he was now entirely rid of his nervous misgivings, of his forced aggressiveness, of the imperative desire to show himself different from his surroundings. He felt now that his surroundings explained him" (Cather 5). Paul craves to become a part of the upper class of society, but contradicts himself by despising the hard working effort it takes to achieve it. In this way, Paul convinces himself that he hasn't become personable by what it took to get his surroundings, but by having his surroundings become his personality. This leads Paul onto a path of only caring for material goods and neglecting reality. He becomes so engrossed in his own fantasies that he refuses his responsibilities and ignores the real world around him. This can be seen when Paul admits that most things he said ”was a lie, but Paul was quite accustomed to lying; found it, indeed, indispensable for overcoming friction" (Cather 1). Paul’s unstable mental state and not being able to deal with the friction of the real world causes him to drift further away from reality. As