The element of literature, which focuses on character, refers to the method the writer uses to create people in a story. There are two major methods of presenting characters: showing and telling. Writers use showing when they want the character to reveal themselves by what they say and do. In contrast, telling is used to tell the reader directly how to interpret each character as they are introduced (Meyers 102).
             Herman Melville uses the method of telling, to bring to life the characters in his story "Bartleby, the Scrivener." The way, in which Melville writes the story, the reader is introduced to each character. He writes, "Ere introducing the scrivener, as he first appeared to me, it is fit I make some mention of myself, my employés, my business, my chambers, and in general surroundings [. . .] I am one of those unambitious lawyers who never address a jury, or in any way draw down public applause; but, in the cool tranquility of a snug retreat, do a snug business among rich men's bonds, and mortgages, and title-deeds" (116).
             As the story begins, Melville introduces the reader to the lawyer and narrator of the story. "I am a rather elderly man. The nature of my avocations, for the last thirty years, has brought me into more than ordinary contact with what would seem an interesting and somewhat singular set of men, of whom, as yet, nothing, that I know of, has ever been written – I mean, the law-copyist, or scriveners" (116).
             This gives insight into the lawyer and prepares the reader for the introduction of the other characters. Melville, through the narrator, introduces Bartleby, the main protagonist in the story. He writes, "While, of other law-copyist, I might write the complete life, of Bartleby nothing of that sort can be done. I believe that no materials
             exist, for a full and satisfactory biography of this man. It is an irreparable loss to literature. Bartleby was on...