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Why Is Bartleby The Scrivener Selfish

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Karl Marx condemned the capitalist system for alienating and blocking human creativity. Capitalists have full control over the means of production, and workers do not. Workers are required to fulfill the capitalists needs without being allowed to contribute their own ideas for a product. As a result, people become machines; losing touch with human nature and basing their decisions on money, instead of kindness. Melville's “Bartleby the Scrivener” is a story about rebellion. The narrator, a lawyer, hired Bartleby as his new scrivener hoping to increase his law firm's productivity. At first first arriving at the office, Bartleby is extremely productive, so much that he impressed the narrator. However, the job of a scrivener is medial, and Bartleby eventually rebels against some of his responsibilities, saying "I would prefer not to.” At first, the narrator is willing to serve the scribes "preferences", but Bartleby's small resistances quickly escalate throughout the story, leaving him …show more content…

However, when the lawyer asks Bartleby to to help “examine a small paper,” he replied “I would prefer not to.” Bartleby has started to rebel against the Lawyers capitalist system, and from this point forward, Bartleby will reply “I would prefer not to” until he is left to stare at the office wall, then slowly lead to his death. The lawyer is shocked and angered by such passive-rebellious act. Partly because he has never dealt with with this type of dissent before. When Turkey is drunk in the afternoon, or when Nippers is feeling sick in the morning, they still do their job. Bartleby’s “I would prefer not to” is so alien to the lawyer that he believed that his “ears had deceived

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When only one gentleman shows up for the job, the boss gives the strange man, Bartleby, a job as a filer. After a few days, the new employee will not listen to the boss. This extraordinary man merely states, “I prefer not to,” when requested to complete a duty. Consequently, the boss gets weary of Bartleby’s behavior and attempts to get rid of

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In Herman Melville’s short story, “Bartleby, the Scrivener”, multiple foils can be observed. Foils being a contrast between two characters or even settings. However, this text will be centered on specifically two foils. The first one, the narrator being a foil of Bartleby, leading to the second foil; Nippers and/or Turkey being foils of Bartleby once again. As previously said, Bartleby the Scrivener and the narrator seem to be foils of each other.

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The Narrator justifies keeping Bartleby and ignores his internal issues with confrontation. When Bartleby refuses to do anything but copy the Narrator forgives the behavior because Bartleby asked so politely. When Bartleby refuses to work all together the Narrator allows him to stay because he thinks it is a good thing to help Bartleby. Even when the Narrator realizes the he can’t have Bartleby in his office anymore he moves offices instead of making Bartleby leave. All these acts show us that the Narrator does not know how do deal with confrontation

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Bartleby is a scrivener, and a scrivener’s definition is, “A professional penman; a scribe, copyist; a clerk, secretary, amanuensis” (OED). So in simpler terms, a scrivener is a writer who makes a lot of copies. At this point in his career, Melville is past his prime and he knows it. His publishers want him to replicate or copy what he has already accomplished in the past. The publishers basically want Melville to make copies like a scrivener.

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" Under the circumstances Nick hardly expects any section of Gatsby's fabulous story to be true..." (Donaldson 161). Gatsby manipulates Nick throughout the novel, causing

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Critical Analysis The short story “Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville, showcases the protagonist, Bartleby, as a scrivener who is inundated with the demanding expectations of his job while being employed by an overbearing mercenary boss. Ultimately, Melville illustrates the protagonist’s sanity and moral value deteriorating as Bartleby begins to lose the will to live due to the stress that his job has created. Herman Melville (1819-1891) was born in New York City, New York. He is the third child out of eight.

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