The Rebirth: One Life-Changing Encounter
             Most people know who they are, their inner-self, but sometimes one encounter with the simplest of man can change your entire existence. In Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street," the author depicts the life or lack there of, of two men, Bartleby and the lawyer-narrator. Through an employee's demise, an unknowing employer gains a new life. The narrator's goal is to recount a story about Bartleby, "the strangest [scrivener] I ever saw or heard of"(Melville 1148). Through the lawyer's narration, he reveals more about himself than he does about Bartleby. By means of his two lonely characters, Melville portrays the destructive effects of isolation and the need for social companionship.
             The title character in "Bartleby the Scrivener" lives a desolate and isolated life. The lawyer states, "While of other law copyists, I might write the compete life, of Bartleby nothing of that sort can be done" (1148). The lawyer's statement shows that Bartleby is clearly void of life. Not in the physical sense: breathing, eating, and sleeping, but in the emotional sense. He lacks the notion of living life to the fullest. Critics say that he is so deeply removed from social contact that "Bartleby is not really a person, he is a phantom crawling out of the unconscious dark pool of the narrator's repressed life" (McCall 103). Although Dan McCall makes a good point, the fact is that Bartleby is a person, others would not see a phantom or be able to produce actual documents as Bartleby does. Bartleby chooses a profession that requires machine-like qualities, which he can exercise in solitude. Unlike the other employees in the office, Bartleby engages in his work nearly every hour of the day.
             As if long famishing for something to copy, he seemed to gorge himself on my documents. Th...