The term: 'Paper Chase.'

I'm not sure if it's explained in the novel, but I've always assumed that the title "The Paper Chase" was basically just a metaphor for "a hollow pursuit," such as getting validation from outside rather than from within (i.e. from grades, professors or the accumulation of life milestones).

In the 1973 film, Lindsey Wagner has speech about all the milestone documents (paper) that Hart can expect to accumulate and put in his "little box" right up to his death certificate.

The somewhat counter-culture theme of the movie, at least, would seem to be that one has to grow beyond the need "succeed" within such narrow limits if one is to become a true individual instead of a cog in the machine. Indeed, the film's poster featured artwork of figures in cap & gown with windup keys in their backs.

Still, I have never heard the term "paper chase" outside of this film - until I watched Orson Wells' 1946 film "The Stranger."

In that film, Connecticut college students engage in a game in which one student runs into the woods dropping shredded paper while the others race behind him trying to follow the trail (like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs). The students say they are going on a "paper chase."

Is this "game" the origin of the phrase "Paper Chase?" Is it a New England thing? Outside of these two movies, I've never heard it used elsewhere.