Month: November 2018

I used page 7 of the short story.

“I would prefer not to”
This is the most famous line that Bartleby says in this short story. Bartleby was one of the quiet ones, but super diligent and good at his job. He was almost too good, writing all day and night. However, one day, in the short story, Bartleby’s boss calls him in for a small paper that he wanted him to look at. His expected full compliance, and was almost nervous that Bartleby was going to snatch it right from his hands. Contrary to his expectations, Bartleby does not want to do the work assigned and says “I would prefer not to.” That absolutely shocks his boss, so he asks again, with the same answer. He doesn’t think much of it because his job makes him extremely busy and he didn’t have the time to worry too much about it. In the Bartleby movie (2001) Bartleby is asked to help his boss wrap a present. He is having a hard time tying the final knot, so when Bartleby walks in, he asks him to put his finger on the ribbon to make it stay in place. This essentially causes Bartleby to have an argument within himself. He spends a good minute or two decided on what he should do. Of course his boss is super confused because he just asked for help for a simple task. In the end, Bartleby says “I would prefer not to” and walks off. The music that plays in the backround while he thinks on what to do makes the scene hilarious. In the trailer, Bartleby also says “I’ve given up working” after his coworkers belittle him for doing nothing. This would be perfectly understandable if he quite his job and went back home, but this guy decided to not go home,and camp out in the building, even after his boss moves his business. Eventually he gets arrested for not leaving the building and lands himself in jail. I believe this guy has essentially given up on life because when he is told to eat, he says “I would prefer not to.” He ends up dying in his cell, which makes for an interesting ending for a short story.

The analysis for The metamorphosis starts at 2:36. The writing I will use is page 35.

Essentially, The metamorphosis is about Gregor Sampson, transforms into a giant insect. However, he really doesn’t care an just contemplates about his current life and how miserable he was. His family talks about how he is useless. When he tries to listen to his sister playing the violin, he appears and scares off the renters, who say they don’t want to pay the rent. The family soon has enough of him and he dies to stop bothering them.

In the Thug notes summary and analysis video, Wise crack talks about how the Kafka writes about living in a capitalist society, when not only can you boss be hounding you about work, your family can to. While gregor was working at his miserable job, no one else in the family was working and they really took his support for granted. He wanted them to live comfortably knowing that they wouldn’t have a huge debt looming over their heads. However, the moment he could no longer provide for them, they though of his as useless and wanted him out of the house as soon as possible. Even he was supported at first, they quickly viewed him as a complete insect instead of a human turned insect. The attitude of his family truly wore him down, and not wanted to burden his family any longer, he chose to die. This is kind of an awful story, because even though it is important to take care of your family, you need to be able to stand up for yourself, especially if you are being abused mentally or physically.