Thursday, February 11, 2010
Bartleby, Analytical View
Bartleby was hired to the firm as a scrivener, someone who records everything that happens in trials. Due to Bartleby's Depression though, he was not doing any work for the law firm at all. Bartleby is a perfect example of how depression can ruin someone's life. Depression did not allow Bartleby to work, and because of this, he had nothing to live for and died. In Bartleby's case though, his depression was able to kill him before his lack of work. When someone lacks work, many luxuries as well as this that are taken for granted suddenly disappear. Being evolved in some kind of labor provides income, which in the current lifestyles of the country, is an absolute necessity. It was shown late in the story that the source of Bartleby’s depression may have come from losing his former job at a dead letter office. This was a place that received all of the letters that the post office were unable to deliver or return to their sender. It was implied in the story that a dead letter office is a symbol of failure. Bartleby was working in a place that was created due to mistakes. This must have made him misrable, which is another connection between his depression and his work life. The theme of labor goes past just Bartleby and his depression in this story. This story shows how a business needs to find the right people to work for it. When Bartleby was hired to the firm, there were already two other scriveners working their, Nippers and Turkey. Both of these scriveners had problerms though, and could not work for most of the day. Nippers suffered from indigestion and Turkey was a drunk. This caused many problems for the firm because at times neither were able to provide suitable work. Labor is a realtion between the employer and the employee that needs to remain balanced inorder for both parties to benefit. Both Nippers and Turkey did not keep this balance, so the firm was not benefiting from having them as employees. Bartleby was hired to coreect this balance. This short story may have not been intentionally focused around labor, but it still shows many themes directly related to it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
When first opening this, I am somewhat confused with the theme of this post. After reading more I understand that the main point of this story is about labor and labor unions. As someone who has never read the short story, it may be good to include some background information, or some quotes from the story. I think that you made a good point that without labor, many people do lack luxuries of life. You also made a good point about how important it is to have a good relationship between the employee and workers. Without strong workers, a business will not succeed. If an employer does not really know the true identities of their workers, they are jeopardizing their businesses. However, I am still somewhat confused with the points that you are trying to prove. What are you arguing about labor? Is it that work is an important part of a person’s life, and without it they are not only missing an important experience, but that work a person’s work has a huge influence about how they feel about their life?
ReplyDeleteI agree that the topic was introduced a bit late and a little more background information would make the introduction clearer. It's very intresting about how you got the conclutions about the loss of luxuries, and the relationships between the employee and the employer. I've never thought of jobs like that and how a mental state of a person's mind could dictate how they function in the work place. Should companies require a mental health test to ensure that their workers are mentally prepared to do their tasks? Should people with depression be able to work or should they stay home to focus on their illness?
ReplyDelete