Paul's Case by Willa Cather. (Critisism)?

Question

There are 2 critical assesment of Paul's Case.

Do you think Paul worships 'glamour and money and the things money can buy' and that Paul is under a delusion that Cordelia Street is a negative place?

or

Paul is a victim of the Industrial Revolution, which robbed their freedom and made him unable to experience art?

Which one do you agree with?

Thanks :)

Answer 1

Definitely the first:
"Do you think Paul worships 'glamour and money and the things money can buy' and that Paul is under a delusion that Cordelia Street is a negative place?"
By the way, Paul's Case was based on a real Pittsburgh high school student's suicide . The boy's parents objected to the story, which was first published in a collection of Cather's short stories entitled "Youth and the Bright Medusa."
"Paul, a sensitive high school student, felt very frustrated with his home life and his family's expectations that he would grow up to work in a factory or the steel mills as his father and most of his neighbors did. He was not close to anyone in his family and had no neighborhood or school friends. Instead, he spent his evenings ushering at the symphony hall or backstage at a local theater.


Paul dreamed of living the life of the performers he saw. He was without discipline and without direction. He had problems at school and was surly when called before a school committee. Eventually he was pulled out of school and sent to work by his father. He devised a scheme to steal money from his employer and then ran away to New York City where he stayed at the Waldorf Astoria, living for a few days the life of his dreams. When he realized that he would have to return home and accept his punishment he killed himself. The poignancy of the story is intense.
This is the most anthologized of all of Cather's writing and was the first to be adapted for television. It has been called a "study in temperament." It is a testimony to the reality of youthful dissatisfactions and the common failure of families to understand and of schools to be helpful. Paul was a misfit and was unable to accept the drab reality of his daily life. His solution, as he glimpses at the last moment, far too late to reverse his decision, can haunt the reader, especially one who has identified with Paul and has
toyed with the thought of oblivion as a solution to one's problems.
I know this is a story that has remained in my mind since I first read it, many decades ago,