Paul's Case

I cannot believe the ending of this story!!!!! The entire time I was reading this story I had a weird feeling in my stomach about Paul. I really thought that at the end of the story Paul was going to wake up and everything he went through would have been a dream. I found it so strange that he was perfectly content living this fake life. When the narrator said, "He was not in the least abashed or lonely. He had no especial desire to meet or to know any of these people; all he demanded was the right to look on and to conjecture, to watch the pageant" (Cather 211). I can't figure out how he was so satisfied living a life completely detached from the world around him. The people around him only mattered so he had something to watch. When Paul went to New York I couldn't get over how no one noticed or even cared that he was gone. This is part of the reason why I thought maybe it was a dream. Maybe he was just imagining a life apart from the world he used to know to get away from it. I also thought maybe he was telling the story from a mental institution like in "Catcher in the Rye" but once again I was wrong. I just cannot seem to figure Paul out. I guess the unhappiness he has in life and the lack of understanding from everyone in his life has forced Paul to block out the world in a way. He only needs to view the lives of others to create happiness in his life. This must have not been enough happiness however if he decided to take his own life at the end of the story.