Symbolism in Willa Cather's Short Story, Paul's Case

Paul´s Case – Analyze Symbolism In the short story, “Paul´s Case”, the author, Willa Cather, uses flowers to symbolize Paul´s life, which she does to show the connections between all living things. In the story, Paul, a young high school boy, dreaming of a life of someone else, first works at a theatre, then drops out of school, gets a job, and in the ends stealing money from the company so he can pay for his travel to New York, Later on in the story, Cather describes how “flower gardens (were) blooming behind glass windows… (Both) violets, roses, and (again) carnations.” Flowers seem to follow Paul wherever he goes. Even, when there are no flowers around him, he asks for them in the hotel suite. Perfection and a longing for a world he was not naturally born in. In the end of the book, before Paul dies, he buys some red carnations. Before Paul jumps in front of the train, he buries the flowers in the snow. Paul´s life was like the flowers. Both the flowers in the glass windows, the one in his buttonhole, the ones at the hotel, and in the end the carnations he buries has a limit for how long they can stay alive. They have a better opportunity to live longer if they are in their right environment. When they get cut off from their roots and gets put into fancy glass windows they only have a certain amount of time that they can stay alive. The same thing happens to Paul. When Paul steals the money from the company, and leaves his roots at Cornelia Street for New York, where he, just like the flowers, only can live for a certain amount of time, because it is not his right environment. All in all the flowers symbolizes the life of Paul. They both bloom best in their right environment. The problem is; Paul does not know his right environment.