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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 3 page paper briefly examines Bartleby and why he can be considered an existential hero. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVBarExt.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
Bartleby tells his employer he would "prefer not to" do his work, he creates a quandary that is almost impossible to solve: what does an employer do with an employee
who simply refuses, in the politest way possible, to do anything, even leave the building? This paper briefly examines Bartleby and why he can be considered an existential hero.
Discussion As noted above, the plot turns on Bartlebys refusal to work. Bartleby is a scrivener, a term used to describe a clerk who copies legal documents by hand.
The unnamed narrator of the story is the lawyer who employs Bartleby, and who finds himself increasingly perplexed by the mans attitude. At first, Bartleby says he would
"prefer not to" do certain routine tasks that are part of his position; not long after that he says that he would "prefer not to" do any work at all.
Instead, he spends his days standing, staring out the window at the blank wall of an air shaft: "Bartleby remained standing at his window in one of his
profoundest dead-wall reveries" (Melville). He drives the narrator to distraction, but the man cant bring himself to throw Bartleby into the street, so instead he moves his offices.
Bartleby remains at the old address, still refusing to vacate the premises even when new tenants move in. The new renters come to the narrator, complaining about Bartleby, but
the narrator says that although Bartleby worked for him for a time, he knows nothing about him, and Bartleby is no longer his responsibility (Melville). The lawyers evict Bartleby
from their new office, whereupon he "haunts" the building; finally, the landlord has him jailed (Melville). The narrator visits him several times and pays for him to have decent
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