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Bartleby, The Scrivener reflections
Bartleby the Scrivener Analysis essay
Bartleby, The Scrivener reflections
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“Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street,” is one of Melville’s most perplexing and intricate works. Despite its alleged complexity, it is a compelling story to read. Many mysteries and unanswered questions seem to surround Herman Melville’s story. Literary symbols extend meaning beyond the prosaic representation of realities. Food plays a role symbolically in the story, as it is one of the many things that stand out to the narrator. In a story where materialism plays a significant role, food symbolizes personality, the fulfilments of needs and the representation of compassion. To begin with, Melville uses foods to describe characters based on their consumption. The nicknames Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut were mutually approved upon, as “expressive of their respective persons or characters” (2). They make reference to foods to be ingested even though, the food itself is not as important as its effects. After twelve o’clock, Turkey becomes unpleasant and “blazed like a grate full of Christmas coals; and continued blazing—but, as it were, with a gradual wane—till 6 o’clock,” (2). His moodiness, however, was most likely the result of his soul becoming tired and bored of his repetitive work. After dinner, Turkey’s meal encourages him so that he feels no urge to work. On the contrary, Nippers, before getting into daily routine, is overwhelmed with “the two evil powers, ambition and indigestion” (3), added to his “grinning irritability” (3). The errand –boy, Ginger Nut received his nickname due to his love of nuts and his duty of fetching the ginger-cake. One of his titles at the office was "cake and apple purveyor of business" (5). When the other two workers Nippers and Turkey wanted to moisten their mouth with a slice,... ... middle of paper ... ...e story through the names and much of the word choice calls to mind eating, or consumption. Bartleby, who prefers not to deal with these things, is ultimately killed by food, or rather, the lack of it. To look at this from a materialistic point of view, the people of this story are all deprived of some basic necessity, and are searching for it through food. The need for emotion, for a real connection beyond work or social details that none seem to have in Wall Street is entailed. Due to Bartleby’s sorrow and loneliness which are deeply felt by the narrator, instead of psychologically helping Bartleby, the narrator focuses on Bartleby’s diet, and rationalizes that the best way to help him is through money for food and a place to stay. Consequently, these items ultimately will not help Bartleby because he is starving for something less tangible than material comforts.
Coming from an “unconventional” background, George Saunders is readily able to relate to the circumstances the everyday working laborer goes through (Wylie). However, Saunders has an advantage to spread out his ideas and concerns about life in the U.S. via his short stories and novellas. Because of neoliberalism and capitalism and its correlation to the huge wealth gap in the U.S. Saunders focuses his protagonists’ view from a proletariat standpoint, allowing the reader to see the life of consumerism has impacted our society. Saunders does not use conventional methods to portray this reality. Instead, Saunders emphasizes on the “absence” of certain moral human characteristics in order to take the reader away from viewing into a hero’s looking glass— to set a foundation of a world where our morals become lost to our materialistic and inherent need of money (Wylie).
Bartleby- The Scrivener In Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener”, the author uses several themes to convey his ideas. The three most important themes are alienation, man’s desire to have a free conscience, and man’s desire to avoid conflict. Melville uses the actions of an eccentric scrivener named Bartleby, and the responses of his cohorts, to show these underlying themes to the reader. The first theme, alienation, is displayed best by Bartleby’s actions. He has a divider put up so that the other scriveners cannot see him, while all of them have desks out in the open so they are full view of each other, as well as the narrator. This caused discourse with all of the others in the office. This is proven when Turkey exclaims, “ I think I’ll just step behind his screen and black his eyes for him.”(p.2411) The other scriveners also felt alienated by the actions of the narrator. His lack of resolve when dealing with Bartleby angered them because they knew that if they would have taken the same actions, they would have been dismissed much more rapidly. The narrator admits to this when he said, “ With any other man I should have flown outright into a dreadful passion, scorned all further words, and thrust him ignominiously from my presence.” (2409) The next theme is man’s desire to avoid conflict. The narrator avoids conflict on several occasions. The first time Bartleby refused to proofread a paper, the narrator simply had someone else do it instead of confronting him and re...
People one can never really tell how person is feeling or what their situation is behind closed doors or behind the façade of the life they lead. Two masterly crafted literary works present readers with characters that have two similar but very different stories that end in the same result. In Herman Melville’s story “Bartleby the Scrivener” readers are presented with Bartleby, an interesting and minimally deep character. In comparison to Gail Godwin’s work, “A Sorrowful Woman” we are presented with a nameless woman with a similar physiological state as Bartleby whom expresses her feelings of dissatisfaction of her life. Here, a deeper examination of these characters their situations and their ultimate fate will be pursued and delved into for a deeper understanding of the choice death for these characters.
His lack of appetite is noticed early where in the narrator notices “that he never went to dinner”. (Melville, 51) We discover later that he has been eating a bit of ginger-nuts and some morsel of cheese, (Melville, 88) however the narrator suggests that this is a pitiable amount of food and that Bartleby is clearing suffering. In fact his refusal to eat ultimately leads to his death; one might infer that it was a form of suicide as he says that he “prefers not to dine to-day... [i]t would disagree with me; I am unused to dinners”. (Melville, 235) This implies that Bartleby hadn’t been eating for a long time. Also refusing to eat, Bartleby is shown to very seldom sleep. The narrator mentions that he is “always there; - first in the morning, continually through the day, and the last at night”, (Melville, 84) he makes his home in the office and the narrator comments that he finally does sleep at the end when he is dead.
...e into his soul in order to help him and possibly to understand him better. " I might give alms to his body; but his body does not pain him; it was his soul that suffered, and his soul I could not reach." (Page134-135, Paragraph 4) This is the real struggle the narrator is facing, the narrator confusion and frustration with Bartleby would all go away if only he knew what was wrong so he could help him but it isn't a physical pain but a spiritual pain in which Bartleby would have to open up in order for the narrator to help. Tone is just one of the literary deceives used that help convey the narrator's attitude towards Bartleby.
...to figure out who Bartleby is. Pinsker also mentions that the lawyer fear of having to confront the isolation and loneliness is the reason behind him wanting to reach out to Bartleby. In some manner I think that the lawyer and Bartleby are alike. In the text its talks about how the lawyer went to Wall Street and found Bartleby in the office. Suggesting that both the lawyer and Bartleby are lonely individuals.
Herman Melville uses a first person point of view to show the narrator’s first hand fascination with his employee Bartleby, as well as Bartleby’s strange behavior and insubordination.
Through Bartleby’s flat and static character type, it is amazing how many different types of conflict he causes. From the first order to examine the law copies, to the last request to dine in the prison, Bartleby’s conflictive reply of “I would prefer not to” stays the same (Melville 150). In this way, he is a very simple character, yet he is still very hard to truly understand. Even ...
To begin, the focus will be set on the issues posed by the story of Bartleby. The audience may wonder why Bartleby goes from the employee who does his work without being problematic, to one who repetitively
Melville, Herman. "Bartleby the Scrivener." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: Norton & Company, 2003. 2330-2355
The infamous ending statement in Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener,” “Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!” (Melville 34), signifies not only the tragic demise of the character of Bartleby, but the dismal ruin of mankind as well. This enigmatic statement can be applied to both “Bartleby the Scrivener” and Melville’s other short story, “Benito Cereno.” Both stories are narrated by unreliable characters, leaving further questions on whether or not the Lawyer was genuinely trying to help Bartleby when he showed signs of depression or if the one-sided story of Captain Delano truly portrayed the slaves and their motives for taking over Cereno’s San Dominick. In each of Melville’s short stories, there is an obvious grayness about each tale, the plots of both stories start out slow and unsuspicious, but are then revealed through a dynamic change in events, and each novella has ultimate realities that are hidden through appearances. Together, “Bartleby the Scrivener” and “Benito Cereno” are stories that possess a deep meaning within them which is intended to make the reader question the definition of human nature.
Upon reading more closely, the story is revealed to present a tragic journey of a man who has lost his sanity but seeks solace in the materialistic comforts of his old life. The story succeeds in making a number of statements about human nature: that wealth is the most powerful measure of social status and anyone without it will face ostracization; that denial of one 's mistakes and unfortunate circumstances only leads to more pain; that even the most optimistic people can hold dark secrets and emotional turmoil inside them. All of these themes compel the reader to ponder their real-life implications long after the story is
His efforts though are fruitless because he was not able to get to Bartleby and never truly understood him, even in prison as the man eventually dies of starvation. Although after his death the lawyer does learn of Bartleby’s previous and listless job at a ‘Dead Letter Office’ which made the lawyer sympathize for him and wonder if that job is what made Bartleby so distant. Bartleby was a loner who distanced himself from everyone, even in death, he was aloof and never interacted with anyone which is not considered normal human behavior because humans are supposed to be social. This story went a little deeper and gave the idea of humanity as a whole being apathetic towards each other, because only the lawyer showed any sort of humane concern for Bartleby while the others cared less. Bartleby himself displayed apathetic behavior as he showed little to no care for how his behavior affected others or even himself. Outside in the world, many people who are stressed out and constantly working tend to only focus on themselves and have little to no care for other people most of the time. It’s another negative view on humanity, but at the same time it’s not that wrong, as society made by humans also makes others so busy and stuck in tedious schedules that they gradually become more jaded and some even become distant and
Giving the world a chance to admit, food has a lot to offer humans on this planet. For example, of course people need food to survive and people use food for their own personal needs as well. From healthy food to unhealthy food, the world is guilty of eating it all. Food is food, and the world has made billions of dollars from this powerful substance. Yes, food is powerful because the world strives from eating it. Energy is stored in this substance, which is known as chemical energy. However, some chemical energy cannot be too good. Food has its' pros and cons that affects the world in a numerous amount of ways. Fast, cheap food is known to be to good to the taste but bad to the body. While people are eating this food, they do not quite understand
Many factors influence how much we eat and our food choices. Numerous studies have shown that simple things such as variety, distractions, visual displays and thinking that a food is good for you, leads to increase consumption. The approach presented is to eliminate overeating, which is not the same as people who under eat. This study reviews literature associated with the factors that affect consumption. Consumption is directly related to ones health in several ways. First of all, the nutritional value of the food. Essential vitamins and minerals are found in foods to promote a healthy body. Secondly, when excess calories are consumed (over consumption) this leads to excess body fat which is the cause for numerous illnesses. Lastly,