Essay Example on The Scrivener by Herman Melville is about a Lawyer

The Scrivener by Herman Melville is about a lawyer who works on Wall Street This lawyer is also the narrator of the story Melville writes about the Lawyers employees and gives a long explanation about everyone The first one Turkey is about the same age as the Lawyer himself and is a good worker in the morning but gets worse as the day goes on Turkey seems like a nice guy to me who wants to work but he can't because his body would not let him The second one is Nippers who is much younger than Turkey and the lawyer He is the very opposite of Turkey because he has trouble working in the morning but as the day goes on he is an excellent worker The last employee is Ginger Nut He is different from the other two because he is not a scrivener he is the boy who is responsible for getting supplies and items for Turkey and Nippers He is called Ginger Nut because they often send him to get Ginger Nut cake I am kind of sorry for Ginger Nut because he just gets used by them to get stuff nobody really needs After the lawyer described the habits of these men he started to slowly introduce Bartleby The lawyer hired Bartleby because he needs help to get all his work done 

First Bartleby seems like an excellent worker but one day when the lawyer called him in to complete a job he answered I would prefer not to I think the story is not that exciting yet because there is not much happening The plot of the story is very easy to understand The lawyer hires a man who is not much different from his other employees but he is very cocky and the lawyer respects that Journal 2 The theme of the story seems to be extremely nice since the Lawyer never really cares about Bartleby being unwilling to work and to be a working member of society He is amazed by Bartleby s ability to refuse everything and to not do anything even eat or find a place to live Throughout the story Bartleby simply exists He does do some writing but he even gives that up There are many more interpretations of Bartleby and the story but I think that Bartleby presents himself the right way By that I mean that even if he is not willing to work he still gets accepted by his Boss and the Society 

But I also think that a lot of readers just don t understand why he gets accepted because he really needs to get his stuff together My Mother always used to say that from generations to generation the work ethic of the people decreased a lot That is why I think the story relates to the modern world Aside from the Lawyer and Bartleby the only other characters in the story are Turkey Nippers and Ginger Nut Turkey and Nippers are the most important ones Neither of their nicknames appears to really fit their character Turkey does not resemble a turkey in any way For the Nickname Nippers I cannot think of an interpretation I think that Melville wanted to name his characters in a way where they get recognize and they differ from everybody else If he would have given them a normal name they would just be like everybody else and they would not be memorable Bartleby is the only one with a real name I think that is because Melville wants that people take him serious and he wants him to fit his attitude Journal 3 At first I thought that Bartleby The Scrivener very easy to read but after reading it completely it gets very confusing But what i could understand is that the main character is a copyist who is not willing to work and who seems very cocky 

A good thing about the story is that it seems like it really happened Bartleby shows classic symptoms of depression especially his lack of motivation He is a passive person although he is the only reliable worker in the office other than the narrator and Ginger Nut Bartleby is a good worker until he starts to refuse to do his work He does not share any personal information to the narrator Bartleby s death show the effects of depression because it shows he does not have motivation to survive he starves himself until he dies Bartleby the Scrivener explores the theme of isolation in American life and the workplace that's why it remembers me of Frankenstein Although all of the characters at the office are related because they all are co workers Bartleby is the only one whose name is known to us and seems serious the rest of characters have odd nicknames like Nippers or Turkey this excludes him from being normal in the workplace Rebellion is also a topic which comes up in this story Even though the Lawyer called Bartleby in to do work he just says NO It's also not common that you just don t do what your Boss tells you too