Kristen Grimmett
English 102
Mrs. Cline
February 26, 2012
Literary
Analysis
The
short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street” by Herman
Melville is a story of a lawyer and his employees. The lawyer, an unnamed character,
owns his own law firm and hires scriveners to prepare his legal important documents.
The introduction includes the lawyer describing his employees: Turkey, Nippers
and Ginger-Nuts. The plot starts when additional help is hired in the name of
Bartleby. Bartleby becomes the main character, or focus, for the rest of the
piece. Through insubordination and frequent disregard for the lawyer’s
instructions, Bartleby persists in doing only what he “prefers” to do. He
continues to refuse to obey the orders of the lawyer of the work that needed
done, until in the end, when Bartleby produces no work at all. The climax of
the story is when Bartleby is presented with an ultimatum that he must either
conform to the lawyer’s wishes or leave the place of employment. When he decides
not to leave, the lawyer quits the office and moves to another location. Bartleby
ends up being sent to the Tombs, a prison.
During
the introduction the lawyer gives a very detailed description of his employees.
Turkey was described as an older gentleman who works hard and is a much needed
member of the lawyer’s team. He has a shorter temper during the afternoons but
is a great worker in the morning. Nippers is a younger individual who, although
with less experience, is also an important member of the team. Nippers is always
adjusted the height of his desk and works best in the afternoon. They both have characteristics described as
being an annoyance to the lawyer during the day of work. However, since they
trade off their annoying habits mid-day, they equal themselves out. I believe
that Melville did this to show the reader that you have to take the good with the
bad. The third employee that the lawyer
describes is Ginger-Nut, who gets his nickname by being the person to bring the
delicious cakes ginger-nuts. He is a very young boy that runs errands for the
lawyer and helps him out as needed.
The
point that the author is trying to make is that Bartleby was being a passive
rebel. He refused to do the work; however, he did so in such a way that the author
felt sympathy and could do nothing to correct Bartleby. The lawyer gave
Bartleby plenty of opportunities to change and to make better decisions. He
even offered the reformists the funds to do something different. The lawyer has
no fault in this matter. He did everything he could to help the poor man.
You did a great job summarizing the story. I think that you should add to your paper and analyze it more to help support your thesis statement. If you didn't know your heading should be on the right side. I'm not sure if it is the same in your draft but on the final essay it should be on the right side. All you need to work on is more analyzing of your paper. Otherwise you have solid start to your paper. Good Job!
ReplyDeleteGreat job on breaking down the story so that folks like me can understand exactly what is going on. One question what is your thesis question? Most likely you are going to have to decide on which one you want to discuss but until then keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteThank you for clearly writing what this paper is about. I found it so difficult to understand in the begining and could follow somewhat thereafter. Which thesis statement did you choose?
ReplyDelete