Paul's Case [Short Story Review]

[I spoil the main beats of this story.]

"Paul's Case" is a short story written by Willa Cather. it was published in 1905.

This, put simply, is a very good story about a boy named Paul who was having an extremely hard time fitting into the world. There was nothing particular wrong with his family and friends. His father was not perfect, but he had enough money to keep him afloat. But for some reason, Paul just detested everything about his life and wanted to get away.

What is interesting about Paul is that he seems to admire the classier style of living. He adores wearing fancy suites and going to the opera. Things like that. He even got a job as an usher at Carnegie Hall just to be around those sorts of people, and he was completely satisfied with that. His father, however, ripped him away from that to force him into more of a lucrative occupation.

This ultimately leads to Paul stealing money from the new business and running off to New York to live a life as he wishes to live. It works... for a little while. What is interesting is that he doesn't get into trouble. His father pays off the business and comes looking for him. Weirdly, Paul seems to have rather preferred jailtime than going back to live with his father, so he runs away again with what little money he has left.

Paul is given the opportunity to shoot himself, but he decides that it was not the way to deal with this. However, while in a complete stupor after waking up, he jumps in front of a train as if it was the most natural thing in the world. It kind of suggested that he might not have done it if he had been more awake. Like... being so groggy allowed the temptation to fully manifest like in a dream, and he left this world right then and there.

I do recommend this story, [redacted for Blogger.].

Either way, there is nothing wrong with this story, and it was good enough to end up a movie in, I think, 1980. Might have to check that one out sometime.

This blog was written on August 3, 2026.

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