Willa Cather

My reflections on Willa Cather and her short stories, “Paul’s Case” and “A Wagoner Matinee”

            While reading both of the stories by Willa Cather, I felt like both stories reflected the feelings people get when they are stifled by their surroundings. Everyone doesn’t always “fit in” in their community. Some people are looked at as weird. Some people can only feel alive when they are not in a small town. Music, drama, and the sounds of the big city often allure many people in.

            “Paul’s Case” is one of Willa Cather’s short stories. Paul seems like a troubled young man. He has been kicked out of school. His teachers do not like him and have bad things to say about him. He has never known a mother because she died a few months after his birth. Paul seems to only feel like he fits in when he is at Carnegie Hall. He can be himself when he is an usher there. Many people like him there and think he is a nice young man as well. Paul feels like he has to lie to not be like the other people in his town. He tells big stories of places he is going or people that he knows. When Paul escapes to New York after stealing bond money, he knows that this is the place he should be. He dresses like the people he is around. He enjoyed everything about New York. He felt like he didn’t have to lie and all his nervous ticks went away. Paul’s bad behavior back in his hometown was a result of his wanting to get out of there and not be like everyone in that small town.

            “A Wagner Matinee” is another one of Willa Cather’s stories. Georgiana is the aunt in the story who must travel to Boston from a little Nebraska town because she has been left a small legacy by a relative. The nephew Clark must help her since he is living in that area and meet her at the train station. He looks up to Georgiana and feels she has helped him be where he is today. During the visit, he takes her to a Wagner Matinee. She doesn’t seem to feel alive in the small town she lives in although she must love her husband Howard to have settled there. The story tells every part of the matinee. With each part, Georgiana comes alive and begins to act like the person she once was. At the end, she doesn’t want to leave. It seems like she enjoyed being around the music. It helped her to feel alive again as well.