Borys:
Since the beginning of the the short story by Herman Melville, Bartleby had been an enigma; never revealing his true thoughts or feelings which lead to his foreseeable collapse. He always just got by on what he needed and did what was required of him by his employers. Until one day on Wall Street, the mundaneness of his life had gotten to him, and Bartleby slowly spiraled into desolation. The lawyer observed his employee’s depressing transformation, “Bartleby sat in his hermitage, oblivious to everything but his own particular business there.” The narrator was explaining how Bartleby slowly isolated himself from other human beings and enveloped himself in his own world. Bartleby’s actions by no means make him a hero; he was simply a miserable and lonesome fellow that gradually gave up on all aspects of his life. He wasn’t fighting against or even ignoring the cruelty and injustice in his life, he simply refused to partake in it anymore. Slowly “preferring not to” do any tasks that were required of him, which not only jeopardized his life, but also his employers who had deadlines and important legal matters to attend to. This sorrowful demise that lead to his death shows us nothing more than a person surrendering to the hardships in life. Considering the fact that people around the world face much worse conditions than this pitiable scrivener, his actions should by no means be praised or labeled as “heroic.”
Zuzanna:
In Herman Melville’s “Bartleby The Scrivener”, Bartleby can be best seen as an anti-hero; he lacks the conventional attributes that define a hero, such as courage, and acts in a way that can be seen as contrary to society’s standards, especially those of 19th-century Wall Street. It is clear that Bartleby becomes extremely dissatisfied with his mundane job, and rather than trying to improve his situation he slowly acquires a passive attitude and disengages from his responsibilities. The famous line “I would prefer not to”, displays his aversion to life. Bartleby begins to view life as meaningless, enveloped in his own world, as an anti-hero typically does. He sees the truth when others don’t, but does nothing. Rather, he allows it to take over every aspect of his life and cause him to completely dissociate from his environment. He arouses sympathy in the narrator and the readers as his mental state descends and eventually causes his death.
Emily:
Routine can be deadly.
When it comes to personal decision-making, when an individual falls into a routine, they become passive actors in their own lives. Whether it’s in their career, at home, in relationships: people lose control and even interest in the day-to-day as they have less of a say in the direction in which their future is headed. For the Boss and his three employees, Turkey, Nippers and Ginger Nut, their monotonous work in the office is something they have just come to accept. They go on and on copying documents as if it were a real “living” when really it’s just living for their paycheck at the end of the week. Bartleby, whether he is unable to tolerate this mundane existence (or just becomes “unmotivated” as some would argue), develops the regular response to his employer that he simply “would prefer not to.” Though he does challenge the typical low-level Wall Street lifestyle that has come to restrict the worker’s lives by refusing to engage in it, Bartleby does it in such an inappropriate manner that instead of encouraging any drastic transformations within their lethargic environment, he ends up essentially being “fired” from the job and nothing changes. One could argue that this is not even a setting that would allow for any such changes to occur. But, being assertive in such an ill manner made Bartleby a Satanic-Hero: a man with good intentions but a bad execution of them.