"Paul's Case"

I think New York City is so much more different to Paul than where he lives because in New York he is free. I think he feels more like an individual and free from his school, his father, and his responsibilities. He went to New York after he discovered that he could no longer go to the theatres and the shows. I feel like at that point he felt his freedoms being taken away from him, in a sense those freedoms were all he lived for. Going to the theatre and watching everything around him was his individual time he had for himself, and without it, he would be a nobody that went about their daily routine with no dreams or ambitions. Being in those places made him feel like he was apart of something great, something that he dreamed about becoming. I don't think he could be himself at home or at school, and in these places he felt right at home.

While reading this story, I picked up on the homosexual tendencies of Paul. I first thought that is was just me seeing it, but after reading the quote from Paul Russell, assured me that those were hints toward it. The way Cather uses some words to describe how Paul feels was a big hint for me. She elaborately goes on about how he loves clothes, flowers, and more of the feminist objects that women usually love. Her descriptions of these and the fact that she focuses a little more than usual, hints at his homosexuality. So this revelation deepens the meaning of his freedom and explains why he didn't feel at home on Cordelia St. In a sense he felt the pressures society has against growing up, getting a job, getting married and having kids, and he knew he didn't think like that. So once in New York, he could feel more of those homosexual feelings without feeling the pressures from his home/school life.