"Bartleby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes how Melville's character, Bartleby, symbolizes the barriers that surround us, the encroachment of the corporate world and the futility of fulfilling the American Dream, which has grown to be a model for the majority of short stories in western literature. The paper,which includes a brief review of the book, goes on to explain that short stories are written for more than just entertainment and that western literature is one of the defining elements in western civilization.

From the Paper:

"Wall Street, the financial institution symbolizes the encroachment of the corporate business. Bartleby and the other scriveners industriously making copies like a cog in the big machine of life. Almost like cattle, being pushed and prodded into a particular direction. Similarly in John Updike's "A & P" the setting of the grocery store combined with the behavior of the customers portrays the same message. "I bet you could set off dynamite in an A & P and the people would by and large keep reaching and checking oatmeal off their lists and muttering "Let me see, there was a third thing, began with A, asparagus, no, ah, yes, applesauce!" or whatever it is they do mutter" (693). The industrialization of our homeland often leaves us with a belittled feeling and without identity. Melville reiterates these points in this passage: "What miserable friendlessness and loneliness are here revealed! His poverty is great; but his solitude, how horrible!"

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