Eunish Shrestha

Tim Maxwell

English 110

Essay 2 Final Draft

22 March 2020

Paul’s Case: An Impactful Work of Fiction

Paul's Case is a fictional short story written by Willa Cather. It follows the life ofa

boy named Paul who robs money to try to live his dream, and proceeds to go on an

adventure. Throughout the book we learn that Paul is very passionate about theater and

drama. Paul also dreams of living the life of a rich person (especially when it comes to

partying). He even acknowledges “that the money was everything, the wall that stood

between all he loathed and all he wanted” (Cather ℙ 63). The book ends with the death

of Paul which seems very much like a suicide, but could have been an accident. Paul’s

life can be seen as a success or failure depending on how it’s looked at. Horatio Alger,

who is an author of Ragged Dick, and Harlon Dalton, an african professor, would argue

Paul is a failure; however, Pater, an oxford instructor, could argue that Paul was a

success. Ultimately, by looking at the aggregate of these different definitions of success,

Paul can be seen as a failure. This is because he is the exact opposite of what Alger

considers to be a successful person. Although Paul embodies most of Pater’s ideals for

success, he lacks patients which is a very important part of Pater’s ideal.

For some context, Paul is a teenager who lives with his dad in a house on

Cordelia Street in New York. Paul simply adores theater, and, as such, he works at his

local theater: Carnegie Hall. In the long run, he dreams of becoming a celebrity.
 The book begins with Paul in his high school’s principal's office where he and the

principal are arguing whether or not he should be suspended on“account [of] his various

misdemeanours”(Cather ℙ 36). Fortunately for him, he manages to slip through the

cracks by lying. Later, he goes to work as an usher at Carnegie Hall ( where he works

very diligently, but he gets home late which makes his father very angry. Going forward,

matters just get worse at Paul’s school as he shows how much he despises his

teachers and how he would rather go work at Carnegie Hall. This leads to his principal

complaining about him to his father, who then forces Paul’s boss to fire Paul. As a

result, he relocated to New Jersey to work for Denny and Carson. One way or another,

he manages to steal one thousand dollars. Because of that, he relocates yet again, this

time back to New York. He lives in a hotel there for a week, and for every day during

that week he parties and lives his dream life. Then when he finds out his dad is

searching for him, he takes a ferry to Newark, takes a cab to go to the Pennsylvania

train tracks, and abruptly gets hit by a train there on purpose.

Alger provides a vivid explanation of what success is through his book Ragged

dicks. In the book the protagonist achieves great success through his honesty, hard

work, and other positive attributes. Alger emphasizes how important education is for

success through Dick’s hunger for knowledge. This can be seen when dick

acknowledges money was not the only thing needed to win a respectable position in life.

“Dick knew he must study hard, and dreaded it”(Alger 93). Along with education Alger

also emphasizes that one should not complain about their situation to others. Dick

embodies this characteristic throughout the book. For example, when he had to sleep in

the box in the cold winter New York street, Dick says he slept in “The Box Hotel” (Alger
20). Throughout the book Alger explains many other characteristics required to be

successful through Dick. One of the biggest one being self-sacrifices. Alger argues to

become successful one must make sacrifices. As a result he discourages activities such

as entertainment, and parties.

On the other hand we have Paul who is the exact opposite of Dick. Dick never

stole and was willing to die to not steal. When Dick was accused of stealing, he said

“That ain’t my style”(Alger 15). However Paul steals money from his company so he

could live the life he dreamed of. The dream life Paul dreams of is a life full of theatrical

stuff, as he loves art and beauty. Paul “reflected drowsily, to the swell of the music and

the chell sweetness of his wine,” (Cather ℙ 61). Paul uses all his stolen money on

partying and having fun, which is an activity Alger heavily discourages. Along with these

Paul also did not go to school, and did not want to get more education completely, and

he lies quite often. The narrator even mentions “Paul was quite accustomed to lying”

(Cather ℙ 3). As such Paul embodies every quality Alger argues would lead to failure.

However one may argue that the success Alger proposed was a myth itself, and

not really possible for most people in reality. By giving an example of the discrimination

faced by black, Dalton argues that Alger does not incorporate the idea of race, and

equal opportunities to the story which makes Alger’s proposed idea a myth. First Dalton

argues hard work alone is not enough like Alger suggested, in real life one’s race plays

a huge role on whether their work gets appreciated. For example, a black student who

ranked second in the national merit scholarship qualifying test gets “recognized as ‘the

best Black’ around, but somehow not seen as one of the best students, (Dalton 261).

He argues people from race such as Blacks “know what it is like to be favored,
disfavored, scrutinized, and ignored all on the basis of our race” (Dalton 261). This is

because of racism that still exists in the United States. As a result Dalton argues that

although some have that chance to realize Alger’s model of success, most people

would not have the opportunity for such.

This can somewhat be seen with Paul’s case as well. Although Paul works hard

at the theater as a usher, his work does not get appreciated. Instead he is forced to stop

working and banned from the theater. Paul’s boss “Charley Edwards remorsefully

promised the boy’s father not to see him again” (Cather ℙ 36). As a result Paul did not

have a choice to work hard to be successful because his father was stopping him from

working hard on what he wanted to work on. This leads to Paul stealing money from

Denny and Carson, so he can follow his passion.

Pater suggests to be successful, one must be passionate, and appreciate

beauty. As one of his most famous quotes suggests “To burn always with this hard,

gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life,”(Pater “The Renaissance”)

One must always be passionate about life. He argues we have “to be for ever curiously

testing new opinions,” (Pater “The Renaissance”) to search for “that one moment only”

where we experience ecstasy, and joy. This means one should actively be in search of

the moment, patiently waiting for a chance to find joy. He believes that we “have an

interval and then our place knows us no more” (Pater “The Renaissance”), as a result

we should live a life without regret. Then Pater goes on to explain that forming habits is

very bad, and “it might even be said that our failure is to form habits,” (Pater “The

Renaissance”). This builds on his previous idea of constantly being curious to test new
ideas because once one builds habits, they are doing the same thing over and over

again, and not trying out something new.

Paul lives a life full of passion, and appreciates beauty in all things. He loves

flowers and colors. He loves theatrical art, and paintings. Throughout his trip in New

York he emphasizes how colorful the flowers are, and how city is in general. He

appreciated all natural beauty “violets, roses, carnations, lilies,”(Cather ℙ 49) along with

orchestra and the music. Through this passionate life Paul somewhat seems

successful, however to get to this point Paul stole money and was very impatient. As a

result Paul shows some quality of being successful, but ends up as failure due to his

impatience. Along with the impatience Paul also builds up somewhat of a habit when he

is in New York because everyday he goes to theater, parties, and sleeps. He does not

search for new things actively which also leads to him to be classified as a failure. Then

in the end of the book Paul jumps infront of the train to suicide, and as he jumps infront

of the train “with merciless clearness, the vastness of what he had left undone” (Cather

ℙ 67) occured to him. This means he ended up regretting his choice to jump in front of

the train. This also goes against Pater’s idea of success where he did not live a life

without regret. As such Paul ends up being a failure in Pater’s version of success as

well.

Although one should follow his or her passion, he or she should not steal. To be

successful one should be diligent and work hard to achieve his or her dreams, while

following his or her passion. Although Pater and Alger propose two extreme versions of

success, I believe it should be a mixture of the two. As Alger suggests one should never

forget their morals, and work very hard. One should also be eager to learn, and never
complain about their troubles. However I believe it is also important to have passion in

life. One should also have some form of entertainment in life. This means like Pater

suggests one should constantly be trying to feel ecstasy, but one must be patient, and

not rush to take negative actions like stealing and killing. If one is not able to follow their

passion they must wait patiently by making some sacrifices for an opportunity to open

up, but until then they should keep working hard. As a result I believe success means to

work hard and be true to their morals, while not letting go of their passion.

Paul is a failure because he embodies the characteristics that Alger and Pater

discourage. Although Paul does have a lot of passion he lies a lot, and he is very

impatient. Paul also hates to study, and is not willing to make any sacrifices. These are

all opposite of what a person must do to be successful. Paul also ends up committing a

crime as he steals, and lets go of his morals, and finally he regretted his decisions.

Because of these actions Paul ends up as a failure from Alger’s, Pater’s, and my

version of success. Therefore Paul lived a life of a failure.

Alger, Horatio. Ragged Dick, or, Street Life in New York. Digireads.com

Publishing, 2020.

Cather. “PAUL'S CASE.” Paul's Case | Willa Cather Archive,

cather.unl.edu/writings/shortfiction/ss006.

Dalton, Harlon L. Horatio Alger.

amesocialissues.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/horatio-alger.pdf.

Pater, Walter. “The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry”

Grammar reviewed by Nikolas Bauhaus