Paul's Case

Summary



The story is about a boy name Paul who is thrown out of school and eventually winds up jumping from a train. When the reader first meets Paul, he is standing before an academic board for some problems he has been having at school. Paul is eventually kicked out of school because of his behavior and has to take another job. While Paul was in school, he had a job at Carnegie Hall as an usher. He enjoyed this job very much because he the music soothed him and he liked the actors. One day Paul steals some money from his employers and travels to New York to see some shows and relax. He is eventually discovered and finds out, from a newspaper, that his father is coming to find him; he then jumps from the train.



Interpretation



Some of the themes that I noticed are Paul's inability to be responsible. He has distanced himself from the world and is incapable of relating to school and work. The only thing that Paul wants in life is to hear music. I thought of this story as a battle between the ID and the super-ego. Paul is rejecting the super-ego side of consciousness and basks only in the light of the ID. Other themes that are prevalent are the relationship between his father and other figures of authority. He rejects authority figures and choses not to live in their world. The story seems to me to be very much about coming to age and the difficulties of the transition between youth and adulthood. And because of the view Paul has, he rejects adult life, escaping in death.

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