How can Willa Carther's "Paul's Case" relate to Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Sharer"?

This is a very interesting question to consider. I suppose
one of the major thematic links we could establish between the two texts is that of the
search for identity.

Let us consider the captain in "The
Secret Sharer" to begin with. It is clear that the story focuses on his own development
and maturity as he faces the realities of the role and responsibility of his position.
He is constantly looking for some sign that he is doing the right thing from his crew.
Of course, a major influence on his process of growing into the role of captain is his
friendship with Leggat, who teaches him that he must be more direct and aggressive to be
a good leader. We see that in the story the captain is exploring and experimenting with
different ways through which he can define
himself.

Similarly, Paul is trying to establish his own
identity, even if the identity he wants to establish is based on fiction rather than
fact. Even though Paul emerges from a middle-class background, which is said to be
"perfectly respectable, Paul sees the lives that his parents lead as boring and
meaningless. He desperately wants to be rich and worry-free. Note how he refers to his
home neighbourhood as he returns there:

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Paul never went up Cordelia Street without a
shudder of loathing. His home was next to the house of the Cumberland minister. He
approached it tonight with the nerveless sense of defeat, the hopless feeling of sinking
back forever into ugliness and commonness that he had always had when he came home. The
moment he turned into Cordelia Street he felt the waters close above his
head.

The way in which Paul
describes his home clearly indicates his attempt to define himself in opposition to his
roots, even if such attempts are based on fantasy. His visits to the opera show
themselves to be nothing more than escapism, and Paul is able to achieve his goal, but
only for one week, as he ventures out to New York to acheive the ultimate escape. Paul's
week in the Waldorf Hotel and his enjoyment of the luxury that surround him reinforce
Paul's impression that "money was everything." We are significantly told that Paul's
"surroundings explained him." However, tragically, Paul is so fixated on this false
identity that when the game is up and his escapism is due to end, he is unable to return
to real life, and kills himself.