Motivation In Bartleby And Benito Cereno

What is the driving force behind someone’s actions? Occasionally someone may have the intent to do one thing, but contact with an outside force may cause him to do something different. In the event of such an about-face, one may be left questioning himself. Once external forces are allowed the ability to influence, it may become impossible to decipher one’s motives.

In 1964, Vroom explained that motivation is ‘a process governing choice made by persons . . . among alternative forms of voluntary activity’ (Vroom, 1964). Similarly, Atkinson (1964) defined motivation as ‘the contemporary (immediate) influence on direction, vigor, and persistence of action’. Furthermore, Campbell and Pritchard also proposed that motivation is related with a set of independent/ dependent variables that explain the direction, amplitude, and persistence of an individual’s behavior, holding constant the effects of aptitude, skill, and understanding of the task, and the constraints operating in the environment. All these explanations have three common elements; that is, they are all concerned with factors or events that energize, channel, and sustain human behavior.

The narrator went to great lengths to avoid a confrontation. When Bartleby refused to leave the office after being fired, the narrator chose to move his office to a different location instead of removing the eccentric man by force. The narrator informs the reader of this idea when he says, “ No more then. Since he will not quit me, I must quit him. I will change my offices.” (2422) By doing so, the narrator displays just how far man is sometimes willing to go to avoid conflict. The final theme is man’s desire to have a free conscience. Melville reveals this theme through the actions of the narrator as well as the new tenants of the office. The narrator attempts to appease his conscience by giving Bartleby money above his wages when he fired him. The new tenants of the office try to put the responsibility of dealing with Bartleby back on the narrator, but they are denied and eventually have the man removed from the premises by law officers. Herman Melville uses the actions and reactions of the characters in “Bartleby the Scrivener” to disclose three important themes, alienation, man’s desire to avoid conflict, and man’s desire to keep a free conscience. In doing so, he gives us an inside look into the workings of the human mind. The reader is left with the impression that all people, including lawyers, have compassion for other humans, and at some point, that

The standard way of thinking about motivation has it that the only way to get people to be driven is to reward them extrinsically. In other words, the way we generally try to motivate people is by dangling a carrot in front of their face, or pushing them with a poke to the ribs with stick. Many people assume that if you want someone to do something, you incentivize them with external compensation. For example, if you want a student to work harder in class, offer them extra credits. If you want your basketball team to be better, make them run more suicides as punishment. However, in this book, Drive: ’’The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us’’ by Daniel Pink challenges this conventional, preconceived notion of motivation of carrot and stick mentality. Pink divided motivation into three categories that evolved over time: motivation 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0.

As history records, and the movie implies, the two remaining Spaniards (Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montes, the owners of the slaves) are forced to sail the ship to Africa, by the rebels, nevertheless, they furtively steer the ship towards the U.S. coast. Everything that happens in the movie appears fairly accurate, considering the creative license of the director, up until the first court

Almost every situation in life is a cause and effect relationship occurring. For example, right now you are probably in school studying, or doing an assignment and probably at the end of the week you will have a test on whatever you are working on. And the results of your test will be the effect to the cause you are doing right now. Most of the time, what you are doing right now is a cause and later on there will be an effect to what you are doing now. But you have control over that situation and you get to choose what gets to happen in that situation. But most people don’t realize they could’ve controlled that situation and done better until after it happens, but after it happens it is too late and you just have to make another situation.

Since each reader is influenced by their own ideology, experience and background, it can result in several different interpretations as to why Bartleby acts this way. Critics have offered different viewpoints in attempting to unravel the mystery of Bartleby. Rogin writes, “Bartleby’s “I prefer not to” is an echo of [Thoreau’s] “Civil Disobedience.” … The intent of passive resistance was to save the adversary as well as to triumph over him. It avoided the costs of direct aggression.” (Rogin, 1071). Clearly, Bartleby was not a confrontational type and used passive resistance to stand up for himself. Friedman agrees, as he writes, “Without anger, impatience, or impertinence, Bartleby sets a limit to the employer’s ready willingness to relate to him as non-human machine. … Bartleby asserts through his passive resistance that he does after all exist as a self, even if only in this entirely negative form.” (Friedman, 1081). The quiet worker showed strength and courage at a time where it needed to be shown. He refused to be treated as a machine and wanted to show his adversary that he too, exists. Sadly, the story ends with Bartleby dying from starvation. Although the initial reaction that readers may have to the tragic ending is a sense of loss and sadness, both Rogin and Friedman argue that despite the unhappy ending, there is an underlying message

Most slaves that came to English North America were from West Africa and most were still enslaved in Angola. Slave activities in these areas were responsible for the population decrease. Once slaves were captured, they would march to the sea in lines, like a train of people fastened together. Men, women, children marched for weeks; some even attempted to commit suicide or die of hunger and exhaustion. When they arrived to their destinations, they were placed in prison until it was time to be inspected. The ‘good’ slaves were separated from the ones who were imperfect; those rejected were called Mackrons. This type of treatment was necessary because it’s the process at which the slaves are selected and bargained for. The psychological process attempted to take away their self-respect and the identities of the slaves. After a purchase was made, the slave would be marked with a hot iron signifying the company whom purchased him or her, whether the Spanish, English, French, Dutch, or Portugese. They would return to their area until a cargo would arrive. Some slaves would arrive in canoes to the ships in the harbors. Most slaves would drown themselves. The stay on the ship was brutal, if a slave would get sick on the voyage; they would be thrown off the

Motivation -- the environment delivers a consequence that changes the probability the behavior will be

Theories of Motivation got their start around the 1930s and have changed from the idea that people are not aware of choices they are making to the idea that we are actually aware and are able to make decisions. In this article we will take a look at several theories of motivation, although there are others we won’t touch on here.

*Motivation – a person has to value the benefit of continuously performing the action. Therefore, this development is often driven by positive reinforcement for demonstrating the behavior correctly or punishment for applying the behavior inappropriately (Sincero, 2011).

*Motivation – a person has to value the benefit of continuously performing the action. Therefore, this development is often driven by positive reinforcement for demonstrating the behavior correctly or punishment for applying the behavior inappropriately (Sincero, 2011).

Motivation is the capability to change behavior. Motivation is a drive that holds one to act because human behavior is directed toward some goal. Motivation is a personal act. It is therefore about people's expectations and their needs, goals, behaviors, giving information about their performances. Therefore, in order to fully comprehend the motivation process, it is necessary to examine such factors as the reasons for compelling people to behave in a certain way, the personal goals and the possibilities of maintaining their behavior. (The content theories deal with “what” motivates people, whereas the process theories deal with, “How” motivation occurs. )

Bartleby chooses to go against the norm by staying in the office while living and breathing work, because he seems to think its wrong to earn a great deal of money with little expense to himself. In class we touched on Bartleby’s passive aggressiveness and how he doesn’t deliberately fight against he used that phrase, “he prefers not to.” His progressive passivity is his objection to partake in the actions of the common traditions. He is going against the rules, but is also a mystery, because no one understands him nor does Melville provide any information

Motivation results from the interaction of both conscious and unconscious factors such as the (1) intensity of desire or need, (2) incentive or reward value of the goal, and (3) expectations of the individual and of his or her peers. These factors are the reasons one has for behaving a certain way. An example is a student that spends extra time studying for a test because he or she wants a better grade in the class.