The goal of many teens today is to get as far away from their home-town as physically possible. They wish to escape the restriction of their past: their parents, their reputation, expectations based on both. They want to learn how live on their own. How to exist without the limits that have been imposed on them throughout their child hood. They want to live in the purest definition of the word. They want to leave what restrains them and depart from all their former problems. As shown in both Paul’s Case and Breakaway sometimes to truly live one must escape their chains and experience the world for themselves.
Both of these works of art are written by females in a male dominated profession: Paul’s Case written in 1905 by Willa Cather, Breakaway…show more content… He lives in Pittsburg during the Industrial Revolution: He is expected to work at a steel factory, following the same dull routine every day. He calls Cordillera Street, where he lives, “a place where fagged-looking businessmen got on the early car; mere rivets in a machine” (Cather). He believes that the people of Cordelia street are just part of a “machine” (Cather). The machine of society. Content with to just doing their role. They do their job without question, without a second thought. They are stuck in a never ending monotone cycle, which Paul does not wish to be a part of. In Breakaway, Clarkson describes getting out of her small, home town as coming “Out of the darkness and into the sun” (Clarkson). The character has lived her entire life in the darkness of her hometown. When they leave their comfort zone, it is like coming up for fresh air. When they are liberated. Cather explains Paul’s experience: “It was at the theater and at Carnegie Hall that Paul really lived…This was Paul’s fairy tale.” (Cather). Carnegie Hall is a “portal of Romance” (Cather). Both of these characters think that leaving their home will bring them joy. They think everything will change if they can just get…show more content… In Breakaway Clarkson says, “don't know where they'll take me / But gotta keep moving on” (Clarkson). Paul shows “he had not known a moment’s hesitation” (Cather) when leaving. They both are completely committed to leaving, but the difference is weather they feel regret for leaving the people they love. In Breakaway the character says “it’s not easy to tell you goodbye” (Clarkson). They will miss their family, but they know they need to leave in order to grow. When Paul leaves he is trying to get away from his family, which would “tempt or corrupt a youthful mind” (Cather). The character in Breakaway wants to stay connected to their family. Stay connected to her roots. She ends up happy in a city with “swinging ‘round revolving doors” (Clarkson), something new for this character. They are happy to leave, but don’t want to forget who got them