YMMV / Paul's Case

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Different motivations and diagnoses have been proposed for Paul. Is he a narcissist? Delusional? Depressive? Suffering from PTSD, perhaps after the death of his mother?
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: It may be jarring to a modern reader when Paul is taken out of school and put to work merely for showing attitude and eccentricity and for voicing a preference about ushering over doing his schoolwork. Today we value education and stress the importance of "staying in school" to young people; in our era, it is exceedingly difficult for a high school dropout to get a good job (and many people additionally pursue college degrees as a requirement of the career that they aspire to). In 1905, however, high school was not considered a universal minimum standard of education and far fewer people had either high school diplomas or college degrees. The position that was arranged for Paul was not a dead-end "Mc Job" – it was an entry-level position in a white-collar enterprise (something like an office boy or junior clerk). If Paul had applied himself and shown initiative, he would likely have been given a chance to learn the ropes and eventually been promoted to a more senior position.
• Values Dissonance: At the time the story was published, withdrawing Paul from high school, barring him off from his artistic friends, and making him trade in his part-time usher job for a full-time office position would have seemed, to some people at any rate, as an appropriate reality check and a logical consequence of his impertinence to his teachers. Today this would seem like the adults denying a teenager the education that is due to him, streaming him into a career that he is not interested in or suited for, and having no regard for his individuality. While Paul's behaviors would seem anti-social even today, they might not be considered so serious as to warrant suspension and the system would likely either make greater efforts to get through to Paul or would simply give up and let his behavior run its course, hoping he would grow out of it. He might also have sessions with a psychologist to get to the bottom of his issues.