Bartelby essays

Bartelby essays Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance. (13) This is so because there is nothing a rational person can do to combat a passive message. Should a group of people decide not to eat until their government complies with their demands, the government will feel the need to comply from a humanitarian stand point. There is nothing else that the government can do to prevent the death of its citizens and that would simply be unacceptable in the global spectrum of sociological science. The problem with passive resistance, however, is its failure to be recognized. Melvilles Bartleby has a purpose rooted deeply in this as its main character attempts to enlighten the working population to the indefinite strife of low level employees. Bartleby the man is opposing the monotony of life in a work place where production equals success. Essentially a talking Xerox machine, the scrivener uses passive means of resistance to make his main and is fellow subordinates understand the faults in their way of life. Melville does this by taking the downfalls of what was then modern day Wall Street and challenge them with title characters actions. As an employee whose only responsibilities included copying the narrators documents and checking them for errors, there would seem to be no room for any kind of resistance due to the cut and dry nature of his employment. By using passive means, Bartleby wins over part of the narrator and makes his seemingly invalid argument suddenly explode with legitimacy. Even in death, when Bartleby becomes an unknown! martyr, his message is carried on. This narrative could be called the legend of Bartleby, as his message continues to be read and discussed over a century after it was written. Also, to understand Bartleby the man is to understand his environment. Melville created a small social order in this text located on Wall Street in a small but effective law of...