I found Bartelby to be a humorous story. The story is narrated by a boss who has no name, so right away we know that he does not have much authority. Basically, he lets his employees do whatever they want to and does not use his authority to get what he wants out of them. .
The story started off with Bartelby being one of the best writers. However, when he is asked to make copies of something, he simply replies with "I"d prefer not to." Since the boss shows no authority, he allows Bartelby to get away with it, angering some of the other workers. As the story progresses, we find out that Bartelby prefers not to do much of anything besides write and starts to make the workplace like his home. .
Although the boss is tempted to fire Bartelby, he cannot bring himself to do it. He feels bad for him at first because he feels that there is something wrong with him. He tried to approach Bartelby as a friend and ask him about his life and where he comes from, but is answered with "I"d prefer not to talk about that right now." As time goes on, Bartelby becomes more and more like a hermit even though he is the first to arrive in the morning and the last to leave at night. He stays in his office all day and does not even leave to get lunch, rather he pays Gingernut to go get his food for him. .
The boss now sees that Bartelby is not going to work out at hisestablishment and rather than outright fire him, he paid him 20 dollars, 12 more than his actual pay, and tell him "that his services were no longer needed," and told him that he hopes he succeeds in life and if he ever needs help to write to him. When he comes to work the next morning, he sees Bartelby was still in the office and the money was still untouched. He then tried to tell Bartelby that he wanted him to leave the building Bartelby said "I"d prefer not to." The boss finds himself obsessing over Bartelby trying to figure him out and attempts to think of ways to get rid of him.
Bartelby the Scrivener The Real Story Greetings reader, I am Bartelby. You may remember me from that terrible story about me told by that nameless narrator, he completely twisted the story to make himself look good. I can't believe that he told such lies about me in front of such a grand audience....
The Piazza Tales, By Herman Melville The Six Lengthy Short Stories The book that I read was The Piazza Tales. These tales were six short stories that consisted of The Piazza,Bartleby, Benito Cereno, The Lightening-rod Man, The Encantadas, and The Bell Tower. These six short stories were all aroun...
Additional pieces in our reading, such as Melville's Bartelby the Scrivner and Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown, indicate early American writers' ability and willingness to question the troubling things they witnessed among the society in which they lived. ...
The Legend of Bartleby "Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance." (13) This is so because there is nothing a rational person can do to combat a passive message. Should a group of people decide not to eat until their government complies with their demands, the government will feel the need to comply from a humanitarian stand point. There is nothing else that the government can do to prevent the death of its citizens and that would simply be unacceptable in the global spectrum of sociological science. The problem with passive resistance, however, is its failure to be...
Bartleby the Scrivener Bartleby was a very interesting character. It is difficult to imagine being so alone in the world that you have to live where you work. Not only his behavior but the things he said made me uncomfortable. His words did not fit in with his plan to stay and live there. He even refused to continue the work he was hired to do. ...
