Bartleby is a short story written by Herman Melville. The story is written with a first person narrator, who has a limited omniscient point of view. The narrator is a corporate lawyer whose offices are on Wall Street. He works with two copyists, and has recently hired a new scrivener named Bartleby. Bartleby seems to be efficient for a while, however, things changed when he refused to examine a document. Melville criticizes the concept of materialism and corporatism, through the usage of motifs, allusions, and symbolism. Melville uses Bartleby to criticize American materialistic values. The setting of the story plays an important role in the theme of the story. The offices were located in Wall Street, an economically centered street. The …show more content…
The narrator description of his two copyists, Turkey and Nippers foreshadows businesses’ modern views on work force. The narrator describes Turkey by saying, “[b]efore twelve o’clock, meridian, was the quickest, steadiest creature too, accomplishing a great deal of work in a style not easy to be matched for these reasons, I was willing to overlook his eccentricities (Melville, 3).” In other words, Turkey was effective and useful in the morning, but not in the afternoons. On the other hand, Melville describes Nippers by saying the complete opposite, “The irritability and consequent nervousness of Nippers were mainly observable in the morning, while in the afternoon he was comparatively mild (5).” In short, Turkey and Nippers complemented each other. This reveals a principle of corporatism, primarily because the narrator or boss was paying two people to do the work of one. One effective copyist could get the job done. However, the fact that the narrator maintained both copyists, suggests that he was afraid of change. Melville even says, “all who know me, consider me an eminently safe man (1).” The narrator worked on the safe side, because he was used to his routine. His lack of decision to fire one of the copyists or perhaps both, and hired a new one reveals the behavior of most modern