AP lit
Blog Post #3
Addie Ramonda
This week in class we read the short story, "Bartleby the Scrivener." It's a story about a man named, Bartleby who is a little strange. He works at a law firm and refuses to be like anyone else. Whenever he is asked to do something he replies with, "I would prefer not to." The lawyers at the firm get very annoyed with Bartleby and are not sure what to do with him since there is not much they can do. Eventually Bartleby ends up dying in jail by refusing to eat. Many people that read this story aren't sure of what the author is trying to have Bartleby represent. I think that Bartleby acts the way he does to show freedom of will. Bartleby by does not conform into what the lawyers want him to do, he doesn't want to do the things that a normal human being does. Bartleby is able to do whatever he pleases by having this state of mind. When reading this I thought that he was pretty stupid in the end refusing food which then ended up killing him. On the other side it shows that sometimes people often don't know that they are too stubborn for their own good, that in some cases it's necessary to put your pride behind you. Some critics say that it was Mellville trying to get across a point. At the time his readers and fans were really pressuring him to write generic stories and he didn't want to. I think it's a clever message although I didn't enjoy this story. I honestly just think that Bartleby was depressed. He lacked motivation and drive, in the end not even enough to stay alive.
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