The Theme Of Alienation In Bartleby The Scrivener And The Hunger Artist

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Alienation, the state of being isolated from a group or category that one should be apart of, exists in three forms; man’s alienation from man, man’s alienation from fellow men, and man’s alienation from the world itself. These three classes of alienation are fluid phases of the same process that exists to some extent within every member of society. The intriguing and complex nature of alienation has sparked the interest of many philosophers, artists, and authors around the world, resulting in works of art and literature that attempt to give insight into living life alone. Authors Herman Melville and Frank Kafka both reveal the struggles of functioning set apart from society through the protagonists in their respective short stories; Bartleby the Scrivener, and The Hunger Artist. The overall theme of marginalization in society in both Bartleby the Scrivener and The Hunger …show more content…

To be alienated for Bartleby and The Hunger Artist is to lose a connection to more than just oneself, as revealed through the characters living conditions and lack of information about the protagonists themselves. Both short stories address the reaction from society towards the main characters in a way that parallels the treatment of individuals living isolated in communities today. The narrator begins the short story Bartleby the Scrivener by “waiving the biographies of all other scriveners for a few passages in the life of Bartleby, who was a scrivener of the strangest I ever saw or heard of” (pg). Bartleby appears at first as a “pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn,” (pg) character who is hired by the narrator because of his sedate nature, which he hoped would balance the personalities of his other employees. Bartleby is first isolated from the other characters through the actions of his boss, the lawyer, who “isolated Bartleby from my sight, though not removed from my voice,” (pg) by placing a folding screen around his desk and, “in a manner,

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