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Pauls Case

Tension between an individual and society as seen in the short story “Paul’s Case”.
In the short story “Paul’s Case” by Willa Cather, Paul is a very confused man. He believes that he was born into a society that does not meet his standards. This belief causes tension and problems between him, his life and everyone associated with him. At first there is tension between Paul and his teacher at school, followed by a huge tension between him and his father that progresses to the dismal end of the story.
In the beginning of the story, the reader is introduced to Paul. He seems to be a typical and normal teenage boy although he is in trouble for causing an incident that occurred in the classroom.   As the story progresses, the reader can gather that Paul is withdrawn and isolated from the world and the people in it, this is because of how he feels about the society he was brought up in and the problems it is causing between him and the people around him due to his want to be in another social group.
After her confrontation with Paul in the classroom, his teacher then became his adversary. After a meeting with the principal she is seen as his opponent throughout the rest of the book, and she feels badly for the way she thought of him. “His teachers left the building dissatisfied and unhappy; humiliated to have felt so vindictive toward a mere boy, to have uttered this feeling in cutting terms, and to have set each other on, as it were, in the gruesome game of intemperate reproach” (pg. 175). All of the teachers in the school could see that Paul was a little withdrawn and a bit strange, he had fits in class and they did not ask why, they just assumed that he was a bit different than the other children. After the meeting the teachers felt bad for having the thoughts and feelings that they had towards Paul.   After a confrontation with his teacher it caused Paul to hate his life at school and dread going there every single day, which only made the tension between him and...