Alienation in the short stories we've recently read

Over the past week and a half we have read Paul's Case by Willa Cather, The Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck and Barn Burning by William Faulkner. In all these short stories, the main characters feel alienated at one point during the story. They each feel isolated for different reasons.

In Paul's Case by Willa Cather, the main character, Paul, doesn't have friends at school. Everyone thinks he is weird and that he has a problem so nobody spends time with him at school or wants to sit with him at lunch. I picked a quote that is said by one of his teachers when they are all discussing his behavior towards friends and teachers. "I don't believe that smile of his comes altogether from insolence. I happen to know that he was born in Colorado, only a few months before his mom died there of a long illness. There is something wrong about the fellow." (P. 266) The teachers all know that there is something wrong with him and that would explain why he doesn't have friends.


For Paul he feels alienated from his classmates, for Sarty Snopes in Barn Burning by William Faulkner, he feels alienated by his father. His family is poor so they work for rich people. Sarty's dad burnt down one of the barns they were working at and he got caught so they held a trial in court to determine punishment. Sarty lied to the judge and the case was dismissed. The Snopes family leaves the state on their wagon. Later that night, his father wakes him up and tells him, "You were fixing to tell them. You would have told him. "He didn't answer. His father struck him with the flat of his hand on the side of the head, hard but without heat, exactly as he had struck the two mules at the store, exactly as he would strike either of them with any stick in order to kill a horse fly.." (P 330) Sarty's father just hit him in the face, this is not what a father should be doing. He should be the one caring and nurturing his own son instead of abusing him.


In The Chrysanthemums, Elisa and Henry are married. Henry does all the work outside the home and Elisa does all the women work at the home, such as gardening and cooking. Her role is shown at the beginning of the short story when the narrator says "Elisa Allen working in her flower garden looked 
down across the yard and saw Henry, her husband, talking to two men in business suits." (P. 351) Henry is the one who is dealing with all the matters outside the home and Elisa is visibly jealous that Henry can do whatever he wants to do instead of doing the same two things every day. Elisa feels alienated by her role because she is a women and at the time it wasn't common in society for women to work or have rights. All three characters in these short stories feel alienated but each for different reasons.

Attached is my Steller Story