Willa Cather’s Mastery of Symbols - an Exploration of Connotations of “flowers” in “paul’s Case”

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II. Analysis on the linking between Paul and the flowers

From the elaborate explanation of the meaning of the flower images appeared in the context, we can feel that there is a close link between Paul and the flowers. For one thing, Paul uses flowers as a means of connecting himself to the gleaming world he seeks. Even the stories he tells classmates of his acquaintance with exotic and sophisticated visiting soloists at the theater include mention of the flowers he sends these artists. Flowers repeatedly provide for Paul an avenue into the world he yearns to join.

What’s more important is that the flower is not only a symbol of his seek for beauty, but also a representation of Paul himself. This standpoint can be extended by comparing the similarities between Paul and flowers.

Firstly, both Paul and the cut flowers are very fragile and sensitive to the surrounding environment. Just as the cut flowers once grow and thrive in a greenhouse environment, Paul also dreams of transplanting himself into a similarly nourishing environment, that is, the world of arts. However, this fantasy world, which is full of artificiality, an element Paul perceives to be necessary in beauty, actually has no means of sustaining him.

Secondly, Paul has no real abilities to enter the world of arts just like the cut flowers without roots. It is important to note that Cather makes a great distinction between Paul and real artists. The women in the stock company were vastly amused when they heard Paul’s story. “They were hard-working women, most of them supporting indolent husband or brothers.” In contrast, Paul has a general dislike for serious work of any kind. Though he loves the opera, music and he admires the actors and actresses at the theatre, he doesn’t want to work hard to achieve that success. “He felt no necessity to do any of these things; what he wanted was to see, to be in the atmosphere, float on the wave of it, to be carried out, blue league after league, away from everything.” Without talent or ambition to perform, he is forever separated from the glittering world he seeks to enter.

Thirdly, the cut flowers, without their roots, can only have a brave mockery at the winter outside the glass for an ephemeral moment, neither can Paul forever stay in the world he is in no way part of. In some ways, the New York City half of the story repeats the Pittsburgh half. When Paul sees the hurry and toss of people outside the hotel, “the boy set his teeth and drew his shoulders together in s spasm of realization; the plot of all dramas, the text of all romances, the nerve-stuff of all sensations was whirling about him like the snowflakes. He burnt like a faggot in a tempest.” Even when Paul is drowning into the world of opulence, he does not actually fit into that world. “The lights, the chatter, the perfumes, the bewildering medley of color—he had, for a moment, the feeling of not being able to stand it.” He remains merely a spectator in this fairy tale. And of course, the drama has to end. The blossoms in the glass cases can not take root after being removed from their world, and neither can Paul establish roots in this artificial world he so desperately wishes to become a part of. The cold world holds no lasting home for him.

One thing we have to know is that “Paul’s ‘excessive feeling’ is not an artist’s “genuine” feeling for art.” [2]Paul likes arts, but he is not truly artistic. Just take a brief look at his visit to the art gallery. He makes a face at Augustus Caesar, peering out at the cast room, and an evil gesture at the Venus de Milo. If the author had intended to relate Paul with art in any significantly genuine way, she might have had him focus upon the paintings more carefully. Yet, the author implies that Paul doesn’t truly appreciate the art.

III. Paul’s “case”—another way to interpret the title

Now that we have emphasized the link between Paul and the flowers, we can further dig into the profound meaning of the title and the theme of this story. Critics generally maintain that “Paul’s Case” explores the danger of art and the struggle of artists and artistically inclined youth in a commercial world. Paul is a “bad case” for his misconduct at school and his secret escape to New York with the money he steals. In addition to this view, another interpretation can also apply. Based on what we have previously analyzed, Paul loves arts, but he is not particularly artistic. All he wants is to be in the atmosphere and float on the waves of beauty, but he does not want to work hard to get it. In this sense, Paul is also “a bad case” in the real ascetics of art. This interpretation of the title can be supported by an excerpt in Marilyn Arnold’s essay in Harold Bloom's anthology “Willa Cather”:

Cather makes it clear that not only is Paul not an artist, but his perception of the artist's life and the artist's glittering world is miles from the truth. In the words of the actors, he is “a bad case.” [3]

Meanwhile, it is worthwhile to note the word “case” in this title. We’ve analyzed that the flowers Paul wears is not only a talisman to protect him and a symbol of his longing for beauty, but also a representation of Paul himself. Throughout the story, the boy is identified with flowers—especially the red carnation he wears in his buttonhole. Since the fragile flowers have glass cases to protect them from ravages of cold weather, it’s natural to think that the sensitive Paul also has a “glass case” to protect him from the mundane Philistinism in Cordelia Street. Yet, through the “glass”, everything Paul sees is distorted, though it may be ethereal and splendid. In this sense, the title “Paul’s Case” can also be interpreted as the invisible “glass case” Paul seeks for and temporarily lives in. Actually, in the story the author gives us some clues about this glass world Paul is in. As David A. Carpenter writes in his essay “Why Willa Cather revised ‘Paul’s Case’: The Work in Art and Those Sunday Afternoons”:

It is significant that after he steals a thousand dollars from his employers, and then escapes by train to New York, we are frequently reminded of the ‘winter outside the glass’. For instance, in the first paragraph beginning the escape episode, where Paul is on the train nearing New York City, the narrator tells us: ‘Paul started up from the seat where he had lain curled in uneasy slumber, rubbed the breath-misted window glass with his hand, and peered out.’

So Cather succeeds in linking Paul symbolically to flowers—flowers cut from their roots, preserved for a time, behind the glass