Blog post #1 topic #2 Bartleby's behaviors analysis

In “Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville, he summarizes Bartleby who is disconnected from society and possibly reflects the resistance of civil disobedience behaviors toward the society since the story is written four years later 1849. This story takes place in a Wall Street law office and the first-person narrator is the lawyer who runs the law office. The lawyer hires Bartleby, who seems quiet and little anti-social, functions admirably as a copyist, however declines to assist with whatever other office assignments – or rather, he basically “prefer not to”. The lawyer and his different workers are stunned, yet Bartleby quite recently would not do what they inquire nor explains why he acting like this. However, the lawyer try to make a step up  and make the situation work until Bartleby ends up in prison when he refuses to leaves the office. People might believe that Bartleby’s series responses are senseless and absurd. In contrast, I believe that it is reasonable and justifiable due to the influences of work environment and just being an outcast that refuses the social expectations.

Regular daily existence has ended up ritualized and dull for Turkey, Nippers, (who also work as a scrivener in the office) and Bartleby. Each is a hostage of an unexceptional schedule; every leads a customized presence and repeatedly activities. Just Bartleby seems to comprehend what is going on, and just he attempts to get away from the workplace schedule. He chose “prefer not to” in a polite way to refuses the demands from the boss and even make the boss seems like he is the one who repetitively  pushes his employee. Readers can also interprets him as a rebellious individual or a great revolutionary that who stands up to against the ways of capitalism or materialism brought in people’s lives and against the social expectations. Bartleby is a brave man who does not allows the universe carries him nor allows the society corrupt into his lives. Additionally, according to the passages whereas the narrator describes how Bartleby stares at the wall most of the time, it also interprets as in a way that Bartleby is extremely overwhelmed by the sadness and demands of everyday life that he first tried to build up protective walls that might gives him certain level of security. Moreover, at the end of the short story the narrator tells the readers that Bartleby used to work at a “Dead Letter Office at Washington” who burns letters that are undeliverable. A dead letter is one that can not be sent to a beneficiary nor came back to its sender, similarly as Bartleby could not be requested that nor told carry out his occupation. However, it is significant because he has slowly become the personification of the dead while he doing all the inactive work that has no values or purposes, it also creates a sense of life is being less meaningful, desperate and hopeless.

In conclusion, Bartleby’s series of unusual actions are understandable because of the surrounding environmental factors and the impact brought to him.