Pauls Case by Willa Cather - Socrates’ Perspective of the Courageous

Pauls Case by Willa Cather - Socrates Perspective of the Courageous Paul In Pauls Case by Willa Cather, Paul becomes aware of the fact that his deportment is not incisively what could be called liveable. His physical home leaves something to be desired, his teachers clearly dislike him, and his father is not the model father. Paul feels that these things are raw and detrimental to his life. Due to the unjust things in his life, he decides to rid himself of them by running away. Later on when he decides to kill himself, he showcases his possession of the cardinal virtues. Pauls decision to kill himself is just, and indeed moderate, wise, and courageous. Paul is just in killing himself because he possesses temperance. Socrates says moderation is agreement between the classes of society (432b). For an individual, moderation is agreement between the parts of the soul. Paul has moderation due to the fact that he does kill himself. The parts of the soul were apparently in agreement. Evidence that his soul was in agreement is that he would not acquire killed himself if it were divided. The parts of his soul had to come to the same conclusion. For Paul that conclusion was suicide the reasoning part decided that the only way to escape his dreadful life at home was to kill himself, the spirited part actually caused Paul to restrict in front of the train, and the appetitive part caused Paul to want to jump in front of the train. To explain what all of this means, Gary Colwell presents this argument, Harmony in the soul, that is, in the individual, results from reason controlling and guiding the individuals life, with the passions and appetites serving in subordinate positions below (400). Ac... ...introduced to his preliminary unjust life. To preserve Pauls inner harmony (443e), he has to kill himself. Suicide was the only thing left o make Paul happy. Gregory Vlastos, in his check up on of Terence Irwins article, Platos Mora l Theory, argues that when we have been brought to see what our soul would be like if it were Platonically just (intellect, emotion, and appetite rationally harmonized in friendly, nonrepressive, order) . . . we shall have gained a new imagination of happiness, which only that kind of soul . . . could realize (127). Paul is happy because he escapes the pressures of life. Pauls decision to kill himself takes into account all of the cardinal virtues and is therefore just. Works CitedCather, Willa. Pauls Case. Perrines literature Structure, Sound, and Sense. Ed. Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson. New York Heinle and Heinle, 2002.