Bartelby
"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.Melville's 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 character's actions. As an employee whose only responsibilities included cop
Bartleby created a vein of controversy that broadened the gap between the narrator and his other scriveners. They were looking for blood and their boss could only tell them to was ". When the narrator tried to befriend him, the scrivener simply refused conversation. Also, to understand Bartleby the man is to understand his environment. ying the narrator's 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. Somewhere between stacks of dead letters and legal documents he had found the treachery of monotony that he simply could not free himself from. When he refused to complete his vocational requirements, Bartleby was able to project his individuality. 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. It was not until Bartleby complained of eye problems and decided to quit copying documents all together that the narrator could do anything to him. But there was something about Bartleby that not only strangely disarmed me, but, in a wonderful manner, touched and disconcerted me. Unlike Franklin, however, the narrator does not distinguish between the true and the useful.
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