Thursday, April 14, 2011
Reaction To Bartleby The Scrivener
I thought the story "Bartleby the scrivener" was a very odd story. It depicted what seemed to be a stubborn man, Bartleby, who grew worthless thoughout the story. He was always telling the narrator his preferences and this put the boss in a tough position and he wanted to get ride of him. I thought the funniest part of the story was when everyone in the office by using the word prefer, and they started talking like Bartleby. Overall I thought the story was very sad because Bartleby was a great scrivener without a place to belong and in that case he dies figuratively. Then he gets placed in jail and dies for real. That to me has a very simbolic meaning, which means he was no longer needed and in that case he ceased to exist.
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I like your blog Michael. Bartleby is indeed an atypical employee who is very stubborn and symbolizes pretty well what he and the narrator do professionally. They dealt with copying legal documents and letters. I really found the symbolism between Bartleby and the Dead Letter Office to be very powerful. They both represent dull, useless space that is neglected. The mail, much like Bartleby, has no mailing or return address so no one really cares what happens to it. I really enjoyed Melville’s use of symbolism in this short story.
ReplyDeleteI like the symbolic connect you made in your blog about Bartleby, Michael. It was ironic that he used to work at the Dead Letter Office which recieved mail that had no return address or place of intrest. I like the connection you made when you related to his postion as his life. Once his services were not needed, his profession died, as did he in the ending.
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way about the story. It was really interesting how the death played a part in the ending. I felt like that really worked for the story. At the same time, I agree that it was really sad. Someone with such obvious talent should be able to put it to work and use it for the better, but instead it dies. And I agree with the Dead Letter Office thing. That was really kind of cool and weird at the same time how that all connected together at the end.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that this was kind of a sad story. While reading it I was hoping for a happier ending. I agree with Megan that it is sad that his talents go to waste. In the beginning the narrator said how good of a worker Bartleby was until he go weird. I also that the discussion in class about the walls in his life was very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI'm seeing a connection with the dead letter office and the "talent going to waste." Bartleby had a purpose, meaning, destination in life. Same with letters. But once he got lost--became alone, unreadable past and no predictable future--he began to slowly die as the letters.
ReplyDeleteBut I enjoyed the story, despite that I was thinking, "NO! NOT BARTLEBY!" at the ending. I enjoyed the subtle humor (quite similar to "Catch 22" or "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe").