In "Paul's Case," Paul, a homosexual teenage kid who lives in a male-dominated society, tries to escape his troubles by fleeing into the worlds of art, wealth, and later into death. Paul is a depressed teenager who escapes reality by fleeing into his dream world of art, music, and theater. He disliked the society that he lived in primarily because males dominated it. Paul also has to deal with himself in that he is homosexual. He decided that he would flee into the world of the wealthy by stealing money from the factory where he worked after his fantasy world was shattered. When Paul comes to the realization that it is impossible for him to live in his dream world, he uses the ultimate form of escape. He ended his life by leaping in front of a locomotive.
             Paul did not feel comfortable living live in a society where males were the prominent sex. Paul rebelled against this society. Paul thought that his society was very dull and boring. "his upstairs room and its horrible yellow wall-paper, the creaking bureau with the greasy plush collar-box, and over his painted wooden bed the pictures of George Washington and John Calvin, and the framed motto, 'Feed my Lambs,' which had been worked in red worsted by his mother" shows that Paul hated where he lived. Paul hated to return to his house as illustrated here, "Paul never went up Cordelia Street without a shudder of loathing." "The moment he turned into Cordelia Street he felt the waters close above his head. After each of these orgies of living, he experienced all the physical depression which follows a debauch; the loathing of respectable beds, of common food, of a house penetrated by kitchen odors; a shuddering repulsion for the flavorless, a colorless mass of every-day existence; a morbid desire for cool things and soft lights and fresh flowers" also shows that Paul hated where he lived and that he thought everyday lif...