A_Victim_Of_Environment

A Victim Of Environment A person bored and fed up with his dreary life of school, home, and monotonous jobs, Paul allowed his environments to dictate his feelings and behavior. The settings in “Paul's Case” reveal aspects of Paul's character and events in his life. The author, Willa Cather, uses the mood and climate of the settings around Paul to determine his feelings and desires. Paul’s life can be best described using his major dwellings: life on Cordelia Street (including school), the theater, and New York. It is the transition of these settings that Cather uses to ultimately reach the climax of the story, in which Paul commits suicide. Cordelia street would be his beginning, the theater his doorway, and New York his downfall. In Paul’s mind living the life of the theater and luxury was supreme achievement. Life began for Paul on Cordelia Street. It represents the bland part of Paul’s life that he is trying to escape, “all of whom were as exactly alike as their homes, and of a piece with the monotony in which they lived” (145). Paul detested the middle class setting in which he lived. He despised his own family paul, life, settings, york, new, street, theater, setting, paul’s, school, cordelia, lived, money, middle, class, paul's, luxury, himself, finest, feelings, dreary, cather, carnegie, been, around, wore, through, suicide, stolen, steal, room, realization, opulent, never, neighbors