Deception and Symbolism in Willa Cather's

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Analytical essay: Willa Cather's 'Paul's Case
Paul, the protagonist of the story, is a troubled student from Pittsburgh who desires to live lavishly away from his middle-class upbringing while participating in the performing arts. Paul gets suspended from school, steals money and travels to New York. Paul gets in trouble with everyone he encounters and is often in conflict with his father who does not understand him. Cather provides a cautionary tale to aspiring artists who hope to make it big when they move to the big cities since they can be affected by alienation and fragmentation in their lives. This is an analytical analysis of Willa Cather's 'Paul's Case'.
One of the main themes is deception. Paul has to lie and steal to achieve his dreams but this does not end well when he is discovered. Paul's lies are associated with his quest to appear sophisticated without having to work hard. Despite growing in a middle-class neighborhood where the deal of working hard is ingrained, the protagonist seeks the easy way out. Paul desires to be treated as being special despite having no outstanding talent or abilities (Saari 393). Paul's life is merely a fantasy, since he cannot achieve what the desires because he does not have the means to achieve the dreams (Salda 114). Paul's life before embarking on a journey to New York shows that he most likely to be antisocial for having a low self-worth.
Carnation and the flowers symbolize Paul's aesthetic behavior and alienation from his surroundings and represent his fantasy world of artificial environments (Crabtree 206). The carnation also shows that Paul is alienated since the other people cannot understand his love for carnations. Towards the end, Paul realizes that life is too short and just as the carnation withers away so do material trappings and life (C...