Melville :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   HERMAN MELVILLE â€Å"Bartleby, the scrivener†, is a very interesting reading that shows us in a very clear way the different forms of alienation: alienation from work, alienation from other people, and alienation from the natural world. Bartleby was a scrivener; in fact, he was â€Å"the strangest scrivener ever seen†. He found a job in the bottom of one of the several huge buildings in Wall Street; moreover, his desk was placed in a corner, with a window that presented no view at all, and consequently, a few light. He had two partners: Turkey, and Nippers. However, non of them were the ideal partners for him. Turkey had a â€Å"flighty† temper, and Nippers, a â€Å"fiery† one.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At first, Bartleby worked very hard, copying an extraordinary vast quantity of writing. As his boss says, for him, â€Å"there was no pause for digestion†. However, things changed with time. One day, the boss asked Bartleby to review a paper with him, and to his surprised, Bartleby replied: â€Å"I would prefer not to†. The boss ignored such behavior the first time because he needed him, and he worked well. However, such sentence, â€Å"I would prefer not to† became more normal, and even familiar. Bartleby carefully revolved any statement that his boss made. As a consequence, after that moment, Bartleby refused many other things: from not going to the post office, to not going next door, and even to not going back home. At the end, Bartleby preferred not to work, and consequently, he was fired. However, when the boss asked him to leave, he got the same answer: â€Å"I prefer not to†. As a result, Bartleby stayed there until the boss and all their partners moved to another place. However, when the new owners of the building came in, and as a consequence of the same answer, Bartleby went to prison. The text ends with Bartleby in prison refusing to eat, and therefore, preferring to die from starvation. The place where he worked in the bottom of â€Å"Wall† Street, his partners, and his unchallenging job alienated him as time passes to the extend that he didn’t want to do anything at all.