Bartleby

Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” is a story of class differences; the narrator, a representative of the educated class, is unable to understand Bartleby, a representative of the working class. Melville demonstrates the economic differences between these two classes through the contrast between the narrator’s life of ease and Bartleby’s life of incessant hard work in the beginning of the story. Moreover, power differences between the classes are displayed through…

Resistance Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville can be interpreted in multiple ways. The idea most clearly represented is that the story of Bartleby is a response to transcendentalism as expressed through Emerson and Thoreau. A common attribute seen in authors of transcendentalism writings is a passive resistance or refusal to cooperate and preferring not to do something. Bartleby is also a passive resister, he doesn’t like to do anything, but this only gets him into trouble. Bartleby the…

Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville is a short story that provokes readers to question what it truly means to be human. The depiction of Melville’s characters and emphasis of specific objects throughout the story become symbolic representations of human existence. Readers are compelled to understand human existence through the narrator’s recollection of Bartleby’s character. The relationship shared between the narrator and Bartleby plays an important role in the development of the story…

Also, depending on the religious background, a story might even be offensive in some ways. Every person has their own opinion about reading in general. The four selections, “Life after High School”, “A Rose for Emily”, “A Jury of Her Peers”, and “Bartleby the Scrivener”, all have different reason for being included in my text book. The story “Life after High School” by Joyce Oates was very interesting. The plot structure of this story is a good example of how complex a plot can be. In the…

Theory Draft “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” is a short story written by Herman Melville. This story has a wide range of interpretations from the idea that Bartleby is homosexual to the idea that Bartleby is meant to change the lawyer’s lifestyle. Mordecai Marcus was able to accurately suggest that Bartleby is a psychological double of the narrator and is meant to change his life for the better. There is a lot of evidence enforcing this theory, including how Bartleby lives,…

Bartleby gave me a headache. That basically sums up what I thought of the book. It was such a strange and trying story to read. However, I think it did have some important ideas in it. The first idea is that it shows how everybody has a breaking point for their patience and empathy. It shows that if enough time passes with little success in helping another person, then hope will be lost and abandonment will occur. I think that this is important to remember while in the process of helping another…

Bartleby, who works as a legal scribe for the tale’s narrator, is a strange, pale man with an eerie indifference to the world around him. By calmly refusing to do anything that is asked of him, he takes part in his own form of passive resistance against the…

Classroom The Bartlebys of the education system are students who “prefer not to” do their work. I have never understood why someone would come to class and do nothing and expect a good grade. I would assume the student wants to be successful and pass the class they have chosen to take. This can be an issue for composition teachers or teachers in general. The author in the reading nails it on the head when describing the characteristics of a Bartleby student. There are different types of Bartleby…

good Christian to help Bartleby, trying to give Bartleby a place to stay in his own home and offering everything he can. The narrator insisted on learning further about Bartleby than the contrasting employees.The narrator tries to give Bartleby money and offers Bartleby a place to stay at his own home. No matter if the narrator leaves or Bartleby prefers not to, the narrator doesn't stop trying. The fact that the narrator is a round character and that the conflict of Bartleby not preferring to…

Many people have different views on people because of the person they might transform into. In “Bartleby the Scrivener” by Melville, Bartleby begins to transform and have authority over the office. Bartleby’s influence over the office manifest itself because he is a good copyist, he weakens the narrator, and the narrator feels sorry for himself. Bartleby is a very unusual character. Bartleby is pronounced as normal in contrast to the other two scriveners the narrator employs. The other…