The Case of Paul by Willa Cather Willa Cather was born near Winchester, Virginia in 1873. At the age of ten, she moved with her family to Nebraska where they were set most of his stories. In 1913 she began an extensive writing career that included many short stories and several novels. In his stories, he described the lives of prairie farmers on the Great Plains. He glorified them over the inhabitants of the cities. In 1922 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel One of Our Own. He left a legacy to the people he represented and a living history of a time and place in time. This story, "Paul's Case," was written around 1905 when WillaCather was living in Pittsburgh; it is the only one of his stories with that city as a backdrop. During his time there he taught high school and said the story was based on experience with two boys in his classes. It also has connections to her background of growing up in a small town in Nebraska where she wanted a broader life experience. In "Paul's Case," by Willa Cather, Paul displays selfishness, impatience, and ultimately cowardice in living his life. life as he sees it apart. Paul, a sensitive high school student, shows his selfish ways to achieve what he believes is a higher goal. Paul's father tries to show faith in Paul by taking him from Carnegie Hall and the theater guild and placing him in an occupation where he will one day be able to prosper. Paul doesn't see a light that makes him proud to accept his father's trust. Instead, he thinks his father is taking him away from what he loves out of pure spite. Paul didn't care about his father's feelings or reputation when he took money from his employer. This fact... half the paper... what he would have done or what would have happened if he hadn't done it as he walked towards the tracks and tried to sort through the images he had seen on his journey, because he was "unable to deal with vital issues at your fingertips." He felt that suicide was his one-way ticket out of the trouble he would encounter when his father arrived in New York. Once he suddenly realized he had left so much undone, it was too late. Willa Cather, the author of "Paul's Case", made Paul the most selfish, impatient and cowardly character ever seen in literature. People must wait for what is due to them. Luck and happiness do not come from wanting to be there. They are achieved through hard work and diligence. These are two characteristics that Paul did not possess. Maybe it was for the best that he had his moment in the sun thanks to bad pay, because he didn't have the potential to actually earn it.