“The Business Man” and “Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street” both present characters who are deeply involved in the world of Business and Work from another view, which is totally different than nowadays people think about a business man whose occupation is joyful and profitable. In fact, both Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville agree that, people in business, such as Peter Profit and Bartleby, do not or cannot make choices depending on their preferences or principles, since there are not many or no choices given to them by their circumstances, and the consequences are not always enjoyable and valuable.
In the first place Bartleby was simply pushed to take an action by the environment, so he made a passive decision which was not …show more content…
At the beginning of his job, knowing that Bartleby would only do copying without any compromise, and it is his bottom-line. He tries to reject requests that are made by the lawyer gently by saying, “I would prefer not to.” Unfortunately, the business circumstance gives him no more choices as the tension between him and the lawyer increases. Without violating his determinations and avoiding further conflicts between him and the lawyer, he is forced to not do anything including copying. At the point, he still hopes the lawyer would understand him by saying, “Do you not see the reason for yourself” (Melville p17), as the lawyer had shown his kindness to him, however, the lawyer is just one of the ordinary business man in the world, who always wants to extract more value from his …show more content…
But again, he quit the job because he feels swindled by his boss, which is something he can’t stand, so no choice left to him, he switched to his next job. Every time he switches a job, something is changed, still, nothing about preference, but about the environment. The environment is shaping him, this time, it is his boss who is the trigger that moves him to another job. And this is the kind of event that keeps pushing the character, to go forward without taking other actual choices, whereas, in the description of the story, it seems that it is Proffit himself decides to start on his new business. On Proffit’s following occupations, similar kinds of events happen to him, keep changing his professions, for example, imprisonment, health problem, financial dispute, and cursing. None of these are in his control, the only thing he could do is either stopping his career or following the decision that is prepared for him by the varying situation.
In conclusion, a choice is something, personal, active and subjective, however, what is interesting is that the choices are always limited by the surrounding environments. It is just like the situation where both main characters in “The Business Man” and “Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street”, could not make their own choices, whereas they simply get pushed forward by the circumstances. Ironically, people generally would not notice it, just like Peter Proffit
In the first place Bartleby was simply pushed to take an action by the environment, so he made a passive decision which was not …show more content…
At the beginning of his job, knowing that Bartleby would only do copying without any compromise, and it is his bottom-line. He tries to reject requests that are made by the lawyer gently by saying, “I would prefer not to.” Unfortunately, the business circumstance gives him no more choices as the tension between him and the lawyer increases. Without violating his determinations and avoiding further conflicts between him and the lawyer, he is forced to not do anything including copying. At the point, he still hopes the lawyer would understand him by saying, “Do you not see the reason for yourself” (Melville p17), as the lawyer had shown his kindness to him, however, the lawyer is just one of the ordinary business man in the world, who always wants to extract more value from his …show more content…
But again, he quit the job because he feels swindled by his boss, which is something he can’t stand, so no choice left to him, he switched to his next job. Every time he switches a job, something is changed, still, nothing about preference, but about the environment. The environment is shaping him, this time, it is his boss who is the trigger that moves him to another job. And this is the kind of event that keeps pushing the character, to go forward without taking other actual choices, whereas, in the description of the story, it seems that it is Proffit himself decides to start on his new business. On Proffit’s following occupations, similar kinds of events happen to him, keep changing his professions, for example, imprisonment, health problem, financial dispute, and cursing. None of these are in his control, the only thing he could do is either stopping his career or following the decision that is prepared for him by the varying situation.
In conclusion, a choice is something, personal, active and subjective, however, what is interesting is that the choices are always limited by the surrounding environments. It is just like the situation where both main characters in “The Business Man” and “Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street”, could not make their own choices, whereas they simply get pushed forward by the circumstances. Ironically, people generally would not notice it, just like Peter Proffit