Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville

As a first read for me, I have to admit that this was a most odd, yet fascinating piece of literature, of which I quite enjoyed reading! The story is told through the eyes of a successful lawyer who practices in New York. Though he has two less than perfect copiests for his legal papers, and a young errand boy, he finds himself in need of more help, as his work demands continue to pile up. Though strange nonetheless of the employees the lawyer has to start with, there oddities were nothing short of a commonality to the rest of the worlds irritation and misgivings. However, Bartleby's character, who is the new employee, struck me with an uneasy sickly feeling, as the depths of human virtue and prosperity are questioned. Though Bartleby really did not do anything wrong per-say, and had very little agitations in his demeanor, his refusals to do anything for his employer by stating that he simply "would prefer not to," gave me an unkindly irritation about him, as much as it did to his boss, and coworkers.

The main themes of Melville's story center around that of virtue, charity, and the essence of life. As one who has had a number of short term jobs throughout my twenty-two year life span, I have learned a little already about all of these, and can see very easily in this story what it means to give in order to live. What is the saddest part though, is that many people work at jobs today that they absolutely hate, but however disparagingly are forced to continue working in order to survive. Bartleby's character, however, goes against this reality, and through the events that facilitate the end of his life, one learns that doing what one would rather do, is simply suicidal.

This journal is taken from the perspective of Ginger Nut, the errand boy, of the lawyer who observes Bartleby from a naive perspective.

My mouth formed around one of the round red apples I had just gotten at the market an hour ago for Turkey,and felt it to my amusement to chomp at the same pace as the wall clock over head. There was fifteen minutes left until lunch, and the groans of my stomach seemed to inform me of this little fact with a steady nagging. Red Delicious apples were my favorite,and luckily I saved enough money to get myself an extra apple on my trip to the market today for Turkey. His cakes weren't too expensive really, but I always had a few extra cents that my father had given me for the various chores he wanted me to do. On occasion though, my boss would throw in a half dollar for me to run and get refreshment for him and his men as a great charity to me. He was a good man, and though I did not know much else of his affairs or his personal life, of that I was for certain. "Five minutes to go," gazing at the clock with it's tick tock. The thought of my mother's left over pot roast was impressed upon my mind and tongue. "Maybe we will get to go early?" I turned my head a few feet and looked into the next room, hoping to catch a glimpse of my boss's sterile face. Usually at about this time, he would make a quick glance at his pocket watch, and fold up the book he had been studying in preparation for our lunch period, however today he was quite different. He sat back in his chair still with steady glazed eyes at the screen in the corner of his room. There was no doubt that his mind was wondering to the peculiar oddities of his newest employee, instead of whether it was lunch or not. Bartleby was an odd sort, to say the least. Though Turkey and Nippers always had there own temperaments and misgivings, I quickly learned how to get along with them, just like they were my own brothers. Bartleby was different. He never said much or did much else then seclude himself behind his screen, and this seem to speak the loudest of his personality. In a simple word, I thought he was just plain weird...and nothing was going to dieter my mind from that. I envied him though,... because he had a seemingly subtle air about him, which although he would often politely refuse a command of boss, with his usual, "I would prefer not to," it seemed to work at his advantage,... at least as far as I knew. It definitely would not have worked for me. Boss pulled his chair away from his desk, and stood up straight. Hopefully this was a sign that lunch was at hand.