Vanessa's Wonderland

Week 15-Willa Cather “Paul’s Case”

Willa Cather “Paul’s Case” & Quiz Revision

 Ø   “Paul’s Case” (wiki) (spark note)

s   Title

“Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament”

s  Author: Willa Cather (wiki)

Cather grew up in Nebraska and graduated from the University of Nebraska. She lived and worked in Pittsburgh for ten years. At the age of 33 she moved to New York, where she lived for the rest of her life.

(places related to the story “Paul’s case”)

s  Text (link) (audio)

×      Quote

Paul’s image:

His clothes were a trifle outgrown, and the tan velvet on the collar of his open overcoat was frayed and worn; but for all that there was something of the dandy about him, and he wore an opal pin in his neatly knotted black-four-in-hand, and a red carnation in his buttonhole.

*opalà Opra(misspelling ); opal pin: adornment, decoration

Paul was tall for his age and very thin, with high, cramped shoulders and a narrow chest. His eyes were remarkable for a certain hysterical brilliancy, and he continually used them in a conscious, theatrical sort of way, peculiarly offensive in a boy.

Paul was quite accustomed to lying.

Paul was always smiling, always glancing about him, seeming to feel that people might be watching him and trying to detect something. This conscious expression, since it was as far as possible from boyish mirthfulness, was usually attributed to insolence or "smartness."

His bow was but a repetition of the scandalous red carnation.

He was a model usher; gracious and smiling he ran up and down the aisles; nothing was too much trouble for him; he carried messages and brought programs as though it were his greatest pleasure in life, and all the people in his section thought him a charming boy, feeling that he remembered and admired them. 

s  Image of teens (Paul)

à Paul was tall for his age and very thin

à with high, cramped shoulders

à a narrow chest

s  Place

×      OmahaNebraska/ Pittsburgh

×      Carnegie Hall

×      New York 

×      City image: Every city has its own pictures in people’s mind and meanings in movies.

Chicago: the tangled human relationship

For example: The Lake House (2006) (wiki) (IMDb) (trailer)

“ This place is about connection.”

×      Up in the Air (2009 film) 型男飛行日誌 (wiki) 

s  Movie (link) (IMDb)(YouTube)

s  Faust (wiki) Christopher Marlowe (wiki) (play wiki) (Spark notes)

(1926IMDb)(2011 IMDb) (stage play clip)

• Ø   Quiz Revision

s   “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” (Quiz link)

Q. What could be a metaphor for the vulnerability of women?

A.          Silence

B.          Music

C.          Art

D.          Cars

E.           Home (correct answer)

×     Vulnerability: easily hurt or harmed physically, mentally, or emotionally; fragile

à  the vulnerability of women => (kitchen/ home)

×     Sexual mores (theme)

àIt’s not bad or good; it’s about choice. => Free will

×     Free will (wiki)

In Genesis, the Garden of Eden, God give Adam and Eve free will to choose.

àthe tree of the knowledge of good and evil vs. the tree of life

#Genesis 2:8-9And Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

#Genesis 2:15-17And Jehovah God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may eat freely, But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of it you shall not eat; for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

×     Elaine Showalter

“A literature of their own” (amazon)

Jane Austen àthe feminine

Charlotte Bronteàthe female

Gorge Eliotàthe feminist

“Sister’s Choice” (amazon) (oxford)

Whole title: “Sister’s Choice: Traditions and Change in American Women's Writing”

s   “Paul’s Case” (Quiz link)