Paul's Case

Cather writes, "The carnations in his coat were drooping with cold, he noticed; their red glory over. It occured to him that all the flowers he had seen in the show windows that first night must have gone the same way, long before this. It was only one splendid breath they had, in spite of their brave mockery at the winter outside the glass. It was a losing game in the end, it seemed, this revolt against the homilies by which the world is run."
While reading this quote, I began to wonder if, at the end of this paragraph, Cather was still talking about the carnations or about Paul. Paul's life can be compared to the carnation. While in the theater-setting Paul was in his element. He was as alive as the carnation was when Paul first wore it.
Then, Paul runs away to NYC. There, Paul's life isn't so glorious as it was. Cather writes, "The grey monotony stretched before him in hopeless, unrelieved years - Sabbath School, Young People's Metting, the yellow-papered room, the damp dish-towels; it all rushed back upon him with sickening vividness. He had the old feeling that the orchestra had suddenly stopped, the sinking sensation that the play was over."
In the end Paul and the carnation are one and the same. They are both lifeless, and drooping.