Comparing Bartleby, The Scrivener And Bartleby

The narrator in Melville’s short story, “Bartleby the Scrivener” is put in a tough position as he hires a new scrivener, Bartleby. I sympathize more with the narrator as he is simply trying to go about his job while Bartleby’s troubled state and disobedience proves to he a hassle. Initially, Bartleby produced extraordinary work but then slowly declined to producing nothing. Being a scrivener proved a exhausting and demanding job but when asked to look over copies Bartleby would reply that he “prefers not to”. Most bosses in the position of the narrator would simply fire Bartleby but the narrator simply stops asking Bartleby to do any work as he cares about Bartleby’s well being. When the narrator finds Bartleby living in the office he says, “My first emotions had been those of pure melancholy and sincerest pity.

Living in Christian community is a necessity for the everyday life of a Christian. Without community, the Christian has no one else to “sharpen” them, no one else to understand the everyday struggle of living in the world, sharing the Gospel, but not partaking in the sinful ways of the world. In “Life Together”, Dietrich Bonhoeffer explores Christian community, and presents not only the benefits of Christian community, but also the toxins that can destroy the community. Living in Christian community brings incomparable joy and community in and through Jesus Christ, but can be easily lost due to humanistic ideals, or “dreams”.

“Bartleby, the Scrivener” is a remarkable short story written by author Herman Melville. The narrator of the story is a lawyer who owns his own law practice located on Wall Street and has various scriveners who work for him. The first scrivener he describes is named Turkey. He is an excellent worker in the morning, but as the day goes on his work begins to become messy and sloppy. He also has an ill temper in the afternoon. The lawyer tries to have Turkey work only in the morning, but of course Turkey argues with him so the lawyer just decides to give him less import work in the afternoon.

The subtitle “Bartleby, the Scrivener, means an individual (Bartleby) who is a law-copyists. Bartleby is one of the scriveners described by the Melville as the strangest Scrivener that ever existed while scriveners are the law copyists. Melville implies the demonstration of patience with the employees as well as haste in doing work in the business world. When Bartleby joins him in the business, he works so hard and with the haste and the natural expectancy of the instant compliance expects Bartleby to snatch a copy of business from him and proceed with the examination and copying without delay (Reed, Naomi 273). Also when he calls him to examine a small paper with him,

When I was reading this story I found multiple reasoning’s to explain why that statement that I just wrote above is true. One is when the lawyer needs to have a small document to be examined and he asks Bartleby to read over it and Bartleby replies with “I would prefer not to.” When Bartleby said that to the lawyer he was in shock that he can’t even scold him or try to argue about it with Bartleby. Instead of insisting that he read it he just calls upon Nippers to read it instead. Bartleby refusing to read over the document and saying what he did was an important impact on the lives of people during the time of Wall Street’s money success.

Day to day life as a human is pretty much the same as any other day. We follow the same schedules and repetitive patterns everyday as life goes on. In the morning you wake up, brush your teeth, take a shower, get dressed and go to work. After that, you come home from work, go to sleep, wake up , and do it all over again the next day . Many humans repeat this cycle at least five days out of the week whether it's to go to school or work.

Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” is compared to the article “Occupy Wall Street in perspective” by Craig Calhoun. Both writings share a common idea of protest by “preferring not to”. The purpose of “Bartleby the Scrivener” is to give insight on the life of ordinary people on Wall Street. While the purpose of “OWS” is to give insight on ordinary peoples lives during the protest. The article “OWS” shows why Bartleby in “Bartleby, the Scrivener” prefers not to and makes him a protestor through four main relations being setting, the 99% vs. 1% contrast, passive resistance, and how both were encouraged through police interference.

Wall Street is commonly regarded as a vicious battleground occupied by thousands of money-hungry individuals that wish to strike it big by climbing the corporate ladder by any means necessary. While many win and many more lose everything as people try to succeed on Wall Street, Melville sees a problem outside the bounds of losing and gaining money. Melville realized that an existential battle was simultaneously taking place within the minds of these young people. In Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener, Melville emits contempt for society and its corrupt values by creating underdeveloped characters that lack typical characteristics of fully established individuals. With work, money, profits, and productivity at the center of the universe,

Bartleby the Scrivener by Henry Melville is a story that revolves solely around scriveners for a law firm. A scrivener is basically just a clerk, scribe, or notary. The passage is told by the man who employs Bartleby, the man is a lawyer, who also employs two other scriveners named Nippers, Turkey, and lastly Ginger Nut. While already having three people employed, the lawyer is still looking for a fourth scrivener. This is when the protagonist comes in, he is an odd young man with the name Bartleby. He answers the ad that the Lawyer put out looking for help and the Lawyer hires him on spot. Later on the Lawyer discovers that Bartleby has made home in the office where he works. He gives his condolences for Bartleby's

Herman Melville’s short story “Bartleby the Scrivener” is about Bartleby—a scrivener at an office on Wall Street—and the narrator who owns the office. The story begins by explaining the characters, the narrator, Bartleby, Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut. It then continues to explain the actions of each character leading to the great conflict of the story. The setting changes start from when Bartleby begins to live inside the office building. The narrator relocates his office because of Bartleby and it leads to Bartleby being locked up. The narrator then visits Bartleby to find out that he is dead. The story reveals that coming detached from

In a Wall Street office, a lawyer hires a quiet and efficient scrivener, Bartleby, to work for him. Everything seems fine until Bartleby state that he “prefers not to”. This is out of character for our diligent worker. This behavior of refusal to work grows as he soon begins to live there. The Narrator asks Bartleby to work or leave.

Melville wrote this story from the point of view of lawyer on Wall-street who does not have the most efficient employees. This later costs the job of the man who refuses to work as well as his home. Bartleby refused a task that his boss gave him simply because he had no desire to do it. The lawyer became infuriated with him and decided to fire him. Unlike London’s story the lawyer depends on people for his survival as a business. In contrast to To Build a Fire it is not a life or death situation no matter how important people feel their business

I believe that Pope Francis calls us to look at each other with sympathy and empathy. In order for us to do that we must first encounter others for more than just a brief moment. In today’s world it is more challenging to engage with others as we don’t even communicate in full sentences. Social media is a wonderful tool to stay contact which each other but has influenced and almost replaced other forms communication. # 169 “In a culture paradoxically suffering from anonymity and at the same time obsessed with the details of other people’s lives, shamelessly given over to morbid curiosity, the Church must look more closely and sympathetically at others whenever necessary.” We have to be willing to go beyond just pleasantries and small talk. People tend to hide their emotions and issues in plain sight, we must are called to have the courage to encourage a deeper connection. #169 “The pace of this accompaniment must be steady and reassuring, reflecting our closeness and our compassionate gaze which also heals, liberates and encourages growth in the Christian life.” I compare this to parents trying to communication with teenagers who are so self-involved and have a difficult time viewing the world beyond their experiences. We have to be willing to draw people out from their worlds to be part of a community. This is one of the core pillars in our parish Vision of Faith in order for us to reach wide or share blessings, we must connect just beyond drive-by conversations.

Bartleby, the Scrivener: “A Story of Wall-Street” is a great depiction of alienation in the everyday routines of modern life. It is in this style of Herman Melville’s writing that we are able to not only see the damage alienation can cause to a human mind, body and spirit, but also to see and understand his own personal trials and tribulations of conforming to how society wanted him to be. Just like Bartleby, Melville refused to be part of the crowd, alienated by everyone for being true to his self. “Leo Marx, in "Melville 's Parable of the Walls," famously argues that "Bartleby" is an allegory of the role of the literary writer in a society that seems to have no place for his art.” (Tally par.11)

Relationships exist in every possible corner of humanity. The adage regarding strength in numbers is a relevant point to deliberate when discussing the benefits and deficits of belongingness. “The ‘belongingness hypothesis’ states that people have a basic psychological need to feel closely connected to others, and that caring, affectionate bonds from close relationships are a major part of human behavior” (Selterman, 2014). People are driven to form and keep positive and significant relationships with others who reciprocate concern and care. The need to belong motivates human behavior, emotion and thought. Whether looking from a theological perspective, “But you belong to God…” (John 4:4, English Standard Version) or an evolutionary view of cell mutations and adaptations, it is inarguable that successful procreation ensures the survivability of mankind. In this act of procreation lies the very reason it is a human necessity to have relationships and seek a level of belonging. Normal and healthy development depends on the associations we form and the existence of humanity is proof of the innateness of belonging. “There is abundant evidence that social bonds form easily. Indeed, people in every society on earth belong to small primary groups that involve face-to-face, personal interactions” (Baumeister, 1995). Whether the relationship is romantic, filial, sibling-oriented, friendly, or based on a need to survive is of little consequence in this dialog. It is quintessential