Good Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

I am here to express my views to why Paul’s

suicide is justifiable.

Assume one day, a close friend of yours, who’s normally joyful and playful, acted like
the complete opposite and left a ton of bad impressions to people he passed by. Of course,
you would start wondering why he acted like that all of a sudden. So, you tried to ask him,
but instead of a response, he ignored you and acted as if you weren’t there. How would you
feel? Would you, like the other people, judge him even without knowing in the first place
why he acted like that? Although this example doesn’t quite relate to the topic, but it does
reveal that humans are such complicated beings that we never know what, when, how, and
why we act, think and feel things.

In Paul’s case, however, is a bit more difficult to decipher.

EVIDENCE 1: Lack of Family Love

From the beginning til the end of the story, information on Paul’s family was only
mentioned three times. The information of his mother passing away when he was very little,
a brief information of his strict father and a short mention of his sister when he was making
up stories to his classmates.
This is a sign that he had a poor relationship with his family. He never even
mentioned their names when he thought about them. Before he committed suicide, instead
of thinking about the concerns from people who he’s lived with all his years, he thought
about the blue of Adriatic water and the yellow of Algerian sands.
Situations like these lead to depression and longing for love.

EVIDENCE 2: Alienation from society, fear of humiliation

The red carnation flower that he wore when he was interrogated at the principal’s
office in school symbolized his sexuality (homosexual). During his stay in New York, the
things he bought (frock-coat, dress-clothes, silver and scarf-pins from Tiffany’s) made his
sexuality even obvious.
In my opinion, though it wasn’t specified in the story, even though it was
unintentionally obvious that he was gay, in New York, when he looked out the window and
started wondering about things, he probably felt like an outsider because of his sexuality
and he might have felt conscious cause if people found out, he would be humiliated.
Homosexuality, during the time Willa Cather wrote Paul’s Case, was definitely something
most people didn’t agree with. Hence, why he was depressed.

EVIDENCE 3: Fantasy, Reality and Escapism

He hated and was ashamed of who he is as a middle classman. It said in the story
that he never went up Cordelia Street without a shudder of loathing. He always had the
hopeless feeling of sinking back forever into ugliness and commonness that he always had
when he came home. He experienced all the physical depression…But, once he was out of
Cordelia street and back to the theater, he felt like himself.
He was so drawn into escapism, that during the process, his mind, unable to cope
with vital matters near at hand, worked feverishly and deftly sorting and grouping these
images. Everything became worse when he went to New York. Although he was living in his
dreams, he wasn’t free.
 In my opinion, throughout the story, though it wasn’t stated clearly, it’s obvious that
Paul is searched for love, a place to belong and be himself, and freedom. No matter how
hard he tried to lie to people, even convinced himself that the life of the superiors/ high
class was where he belonged, and escaped so many times, he never found freedom. All the
emotions and thoughts he had were in one big pile that it was too hard and impossible to
control.
Because he was so deprived with so many things and out of love, his mind was not
cultivated to have an outlook of being positive. His outlook was always negative. No one has
shaped him with clear directions. He was on his own, thinking about himself, no parental
guidance, left out in the world, and very depressed.