Month: November 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjkkztJkNfs

Time: 6:14 – end

“In this very attitude did I sit when I called to him, rapidly stating what it was I wanted him to do—namely, to examine a small paper with me. Imagine my surprise, nay, my consternation, when without moving from his privacy, Bartleby in a singularly mild, firm voice, replied, ‘I would prefer not to.’

I sat awhile in perfect silence, rallying my stunned faculties. Immediately it occurred to me that my ears had deceived me, or Bartleby had entirely misunderstood my meaning. I repeated my request in the clearest tone I could assume. But in quite as clear a one came the previous reply, ‘I would prefer not to.’

‘Prefer not to,’ echoed I, rising in high excitement, and crossing the room with a stride. ‘What do you mean? Are you moon-struck? I want you to help me compare this sheet here—take it,’ and I thrust it towards him.

‘I would prefer not to,’ said he.

Bartleby is a story that may seem repetitious but that is only done to emphasize a very important point that this video captures perfectly. This story is about a man named Bartleby who works for the very prestigious narrator and whenever he is given an assignment by his boss, he states ‘I would prefer not to’. Now this might be strange… how can you tell your boss that you would rather not do what is told of you? That is your job after all—that is what you’re being paid to do.

A lot of times we are so caught up in things that we believe we ‘have to’ do. Either because we feel we may get in trouble for not doing it, because we think it’s the only way to be successful, or for whatever other reason. Sometimes it feels like we don’t have a choice, so we go along with things that we truly don’t want to go along with.

Bartleby teaches us that it is ok to reject doing what is expected of us, even if it may seem impossible to do because of its high stakes. Even with the highest stakes, Bartleby who works for a very successful lawyer in Wall Street, refuses to do his work as shown in the excerpt above. And when he did refuse, nothing happened — he didn’t get in trouble. Now he did go to jail towards the end but that was for sleeping at work, a completely different reason.

Now this is not to say to be an irresponsible and unreliable person/employee. Bartleby’s situation is a bit extreme and this is done in order to show that it could be done even in risky situations. This is simply meant to show that it’s ok to take a step back every now and then and remember that we have choices and we don’t have to do what we don’t want to if it means compromising our own needs.

 

“The father relentlessly pressed forward pushing out sibilants, like a wild man. Now, Gregor had no practice at all in going backwards; it was really going very slowly. If Gregor only had been allowed to turn himself around, he would have been in his room right away, but he was afraid to make his father impatient by the time-consuming process of turning around, and each moment he faced the threat of a mortal blow on his back or his head from the cane in his father’s hand. Finally Gregor had no other option, for he noticed with horror that he did not understand yet how to maintain his direction going backwards. And so he began, amid constantly anxious sideways glances in his father’s direction, to turn himself around as quickly as possible (although in truth this was only very slowly).”

(The whole video)

This video discusses various themes present in the metamorphosis. I chose a video that analyzes the story rather than summarizes it because I felt like the storyline was a little strange so there must be something more to it than just its plot — and surely there was.

The video explains that the theme in this story relates to the author, Franz Kafka’s life in many ways. Being a Jewish man living at a time where anti-Semitism was extremely prevalent, it is safe to say that Kafka may have felt isolated and alone for a lot of his life. This corresponds with how Gregor was treated by his own family in the story. Gregor spent all of his time doing something he hated solely to ensure that his family was financially secured. However, when he turned into a bug all of a sudden, they turned on him and pushed him away because he was no longer useful to them, he was different, and seen as disgusting by the rest of society.

The way Gregor was treated by his family is a close reflection of the way Jews were treated in Kafka’s time; left isolated and treated like they were undeserving of normal human treatment. However, this is not the only situation to which the story may apply. The video says that the theme is timeless, and this is true. Even today, over a hundred years after the story was written, the theme remains relevant. We continue to group people and differentiate ourselves from them based on a multitude of qualities. We think that when people are different they don’t deserve the same rights as we do or the same treatment as we do. It’s a concept that when you look back you think ‘how did people act like that towards one another?’ without realizing that it still happens today.