Pauls Case

Pauls Case

Ashton Anderson
Mr. Terrell
English 1123
28 September 2011
TTH 9:30
“Paul’s Case”: The Diction of Willa Cather
Diction is simply choice and use of words in writing. Diction is a very useful tool for successful writers. Diction can be used to define an author’s characters, to make a more interesting plot, or to make the setting or the time the story was written more clear to the reader. For example, Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case” is a nineteen page short story that includes very many complex and expressive word diction.                                                                                       This short story was written by Willa Cather around 1905 when she was living in Pittsburgh; it is the only one of her stories with that city as a background. During her time there she taught in a high school and she said the story was based on experience with two boys in her classes. It also has connections to her own background of growing up in a small town in Nebraska where she hungered for a broader life experience (Cather 533). Paul, a sensitive high school student, felt very frustrated with his home life and his family's expectations that he would grow up to work in a factory or the steel mills as his father and most of his neighbors did. He was not close to anyone in his family and had no neighborhood or school friends. Instead, he spent his evenings ushering at the symphony hall or backstage at a local theater. Paul dreamed of living the life of the performers he saw. He was without discipline and without direction. He had problems at school and unfriendly when called before a school committee. Eventually he was pulled out of school and sent to work by his father. He came up with a place to steal money from his job and then ran away to New York City where he stayed at a fancy hotel, living for a few days the life of his dreams. When he realized that he would have to return home and accept his punishment he killed himself. Cather prefers Latinate...