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Bartleby Isolation

419 Words2 Pages

In “Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville, the character Bartleby isolates himself from the other characters. In the workplace a worker can isolate his or herself very easily, by getting so engrossed in one’s work. However, in this story that is not the case, Melville writes to show the severity of one’s isolation in the workplace. Bartleby isolates himself from everything, he refuses to work and eat causing him to die. Throughout this story I can relate to Bartleby because when I get really focused on my work I do not want to take a break. I sometimes lose track of time and forget to eat until one of my friends disturbs me. Also, sometimes I zone out and lose track of time forgetting what I was doing and forgetting to preform basic tasks. This is like Bartleby later in the story. …show more content…

This is shown throughout the story when Bartleby starts saying “I would prefer not to” to most tasks that were asked of him. I can relate to Bartleby in this instance because sometimes I do not want to do any work that is expected of me. When I am in this mood I put off a lot of my work. Later, when I am in a better mood I pick up my work again. As does Bartleby, he pick himself back up and preforms a large amount of work. “A few days after this, Bartleby concluded four lengthy documents” (Melville,

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