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Life At Home In Paul's Case By Willa Cather

745 Words3 Pages

Often, people feel out of place in a certain environment. Rarely is it ever that a person has this feeling in his own home. This is how Paul feels in Willa Cather’s story “Paul’s Case”. The main character Paul despises the life that he lives at home and at school. He feels as though the people around him cannot comprehend the feelings that he experiences. His fondness towards his home on Cordelia Street are much different than what he feels for Carnegie Hall, the stock theater, and New York City. No doubt, Paul has a strong feeling of resentment towards his home on Cordelia Street. He feels that life there is far too simple and that people do not truly live life to the fullest. To Paul, the pictures of Washington and Calvin and the …show more content…

“Not once, but a hundred times, Paul had planned this entry into New York” (Cather 185). It is the location that embodies all of his hopes and dreams. New York is a fancy place that is home to the greatest theaters in the world. Cordelia Street is boring, uniform and lifeless. New York City is unique, cultured and elegant. Its citizens appreciate the finer things in life, just as Paul does. This place is Paul’s escape from his boring life back in Pittsburgh. “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 187).

Ultimately, all Paul wants to do is escape life on Cordelia Street. The boring life there is normal there is not suitable for him. He despises the people that live there because they have accepted the boring life that has been handed to them. He feels as though he is chained down in some way; as though he is not freely living life. The stock theater, Carnegie Hall, and New York City were all outlets that allow Paul to temporarily escape from his disappointing reality on Cordelia Street. Paul is able to taste this freedom, and he decides that he cannot go back to his boring

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