"Bartleby the Scrivener"

Herman Melville’s story “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street” is told from the perspective of an elderly lawyer who oversees his employees in his law office. Although the narrator means well, he can never seem to help anyone around him. People must act accordingly to certain concepts of humanness to fully benefit others. The major example of this is the newly hired Bartleby, who gives the narrator much grief over his duties at the office. Bartleby also almost seems to be a ghost, haunting the office. Throughout the story, what little life he seems to have gradually fades away. Losing the concept of humanness can eventually lead to the deterioration of the person. Bartleby losing himself is a tragedy towards humanity for the narrator.

The narrator is an interesting character because of how much he tries to hide from conflict and keep complications his life. One example of this is: “I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is best,” (600). This is probably why he chose to focus on the monetary aspect of the law. The narrator claims that he is “one of those unambitious lawyers who never addresses a jury, or in any way draws down public applause,” (600). The Narrator, it seems, tends to like to stay behind the scenes with his work. He does not need the approval of the public for his work. The Narrator also claims himself to be a “safe” man (600). The Narrator believes himself to be an honest, hardworking man who avoids trouble at all costs.

The Narrator’s employees are interesting characters as well. Turkey, an elderly scrivener, seems to want to brown nose to the Narrator. He is heavy-set and not well dressed. When speaking with the Narrator, he often says “with submission, sir…” (602). Turkey seems to be very productive in the office during the morning hours, but has a huge temper in the afternoons. The complement to Turkey is Nippers. Nippers is twenty-five year-old man that is sallow and piratical in appearance. He is ambitious ad has indigestion, meaning that he is hard working in the afternoon yet very temperamental in the morning. He is well-dressed and looks good for the office. The two scriveners seem to complement each other in age, appearance, and how they work. It should be said that overall they are both unproductive for the office. The Narrator goes with this flow of the office because he does not desire to deal with his employees.

The most interesting character and the subject of the Narrator’s story is Bartleby. It is unclear Bartleby’s age or where he came from. He is, at first, an excellent copyist. Bartleby prefers to do no other work. He refuses to leave the office, living there with the very few possessions kept in his make-shift office. Bartleby appears to be emotionless and refuses to speak unless spoken to. It is rumored that Bartleby worked at the Dead Letter office in Washington DC, but his true history was never revealed.

The Narrator seems to unsuccessfully try to help others. Although his intentions are good, the Narrator is unable to use his giving nature effectively. The first example of this is when the Narrator tries to give Turkey the new coat. After his plan fails, the Narrator says that, “I thought Turkey would appreciate the favor, and abate his rashness and obstreperousness of afternoons. But no.” (603). The Narrator most likely offended Turkey by giving him the coat is such a cold way. The Narrator’s main intent was to improve the office, not exactly help Turkey. This is a foreshadowing of his abilities to help the mysterious Bartleby. Although Bartleby prefers to do no work for the office, the Narrator is unwilling to confront him. Instead, he complies with Bartleby’s uncooperativeness. The Narrator then moves on to the strategy of trying to avoid the problem. The Narrator both moves offices and claims no responsibility for him. Once the Narrator realizes they are linked together, he tries to offer Bartleby other jobs and a place in his own home. Bartleby refuses all help and ends up in the New York jail, where he dies.

Bartleby slowly wastes away throughout the story. During his stay in the office, he ate very little except ginger-nuts. He rarely spoke to anyone and did not do anything asked. Bartleby also had an unhealthy attachment to the office. He refused to leave, even when he was kicked out. Only the jail was able to keep him away. It is in the jail where Bartleby gives up and dies.

The story had repetitions of death and religion all throughout. The idea of death seemed to revolve around the jail and Bartleby. The jail is often called the Tombs and the Narrator mentions a suicide that recently happened in the jail. Bartleby is described as thin and pale like a ghost. Also, the Dead Letters Bartleby handled was connected to dead men by the Narrator. The Narrator made religious connections to events in the story. When Bartleby first refuses to do work, the Narrator feels he is turned into a “pillar of salt” (606). The Narrator quotes the verse: “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another” from John 13:34 (618). Another example is Bartleby’s death. The Narrator quotes Job 3:14: With kings and counselors” (625).

The narrator is unable to save Bartleby from his demise. Bartleby slowly slips away after the office is taken from him. Bartleby may have found his safe haven from the Dead Letters that seemed to haunt him.

The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, chronicles a woman’s steady descent into madness while on a recuperative holiday with her family. The story is told in the first person from the perspective of the woman as she writes down her thoughts. The story provides clues that reveal to the reader the progression of the narrator’s instability. Two continuing themes we found important to the story are powerlessness and ignorance, both of which contribute to the eventual breakdown of the narrator’s sanity. Because nearly every aspect of the narrator’s life is controlled and the severity of her illness is not acknowledged she begins to loose touch with herself and projects her feelings onto the wallpaper in the form of the woman she believes is trapped behind it.

From the very first page the reader can sense that the narrator has very limited control over her situation. Her husband, John, makes most of her decisions for her. She writes on page 298, “ he hardly lets me stir without special direction”. Even her movements were restricted and when John finds her up in the middle of the night he says, “What is it, little girl? …Don’t go walking about like that- you’ll get cold.”(P. 303). He does not even approve of her writing because he thinks it exacerbates her “nervous condition” and she says, “There comes John, and I must put this away”(p. 298). The boundaries he puts on her force her to internalize her feelings and cause her mind to weaken. The narrator’s sense of powerlessness can also be sensed in the fact that she leaves herself nameless. A name is a person’s ultimate sense of identity and it is obvious that the narrator has lost her own.

Her surroundings also allude to her powerlessness. The way she describes the house makes it appear extremely isolating: “It is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village…there are hedges and walls and gates that lock”(p. 297). The house seems like another way to keep her under control and can even be seen as a manifestation of her feelings of restraint and separation. One of the features of the room her husband has chosen for them are the barred windows which are describes on page 298. This is an allusion to prison and further supports the idea that she is restricted.

The severity of her illness is also never acknowledged until the end of the story. Early on she explains to the reader that her husband does not believe that she is really sick because he can see no physical symptoms: “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is not reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.”(P. 299). She expresses her helplessness in trying to get him to understand: “That is “He does not believe I am sick! And what can one do?” (P. 297). When the narrator decides to tell her husband that she is not progressing in the house he insists otherwise: “I told him that I really was not gaining here, and that I wished he would take me away… ‘I am a doctor, dear, and I know. You are gaining flesh and color, your appetite is better, and I feel really much easier about you.” (P. 303). Then she replies, pleading for him to understand, and is once again dismissed: “Better in body perhaps-“ I began, and stopped short, for he sat up straight and looked at me with such a stern, reproachful look that I could not say another word… He said, “I beg you…that you will never for one instant let that idea enter your mind! ...Can you trust me as a physician when I tell you so?” (P. 303). He believes she has a “nervous condition”. It’s a possibility that the narrator was experiencing a version of postpartum depression. She says she cannot be around her baby because he makes her nervous and she hardly even references him in the story. Whatever her “nervous condition” is, it eventually progresses into something disconcerting.

The narrator’s evolution towards insanity becomes evident when she begins to restrict what she tells her husband and starts to completely internalize her feelings. She says, “I don’t (cry) when John is here, or anybody else” (P. 301). She forces herself to limit her display of feelings to when she is alone because she is afraid of being reproached. The exhaustive process of hiding her thoughts begin to take their toll and she writes, “if I feel so I shall neglect proper self-control; so I take pains to control myself- before him, at least, and that makes me very tired.” (P. 298). This is what causes her to eventually break, but never understand that she has broken. Even at the very end of the story she is unaware that what she has gone insane and continues to circle the floor in an attempt to free the woman in the wallpaper.

Joseph and Trapper

"A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connery

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” tells the story of redemptive grace in the fallen world. We follow Grandmother and her family on a road trip to their impending doom delivered by the Misfit and his fellow convicts. Grandmother and her family suffer from a severe breakdown in moral values. Flannery O’Conner uses exaggerations in her characters to exemplify their perverted sense of self. We believe the central theme is revealed through a last minute epiphany, where O’Conner gives the reader a startling new point of view on the values and religion explored in the relationship between Grandmother and the Misfit.

The narrator reveals that while Grandmother may think of herself as a lady and a good Christian, she puts more focus on appearance rather than her actions. She is careful to wear her best clothes when traveling so that “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once she was a lady” (p. 679). She is completely indifferent to the sufferings of others, as she is fascinated by the “negro child standing in the door of a shack” (p. 679). She effortlessly tells untruths several times throughout the story. She sneaks the cat on the journey (p. 678), she lies about the panel in the house (p. 682) and she exaggerates the number of times the car overturned during the accident (p. 684). Her final and probably greatest sin, is denying the works of Jesus when she says to the Misfit that “maybe he didn’t raise the dead” (p. 688). Grandmother gives a bad representation of a morally sound individual, much less a lady.

The Misfit, the villain of the story, demonstrates a deep conviction that the other characters lack. He makes no excuses for his current state or previous actions. About himself, he says, “I ain’t a good man…but I ain’t the worst in the world neither” (p. 686). He seems to have a vast knowledge of society because of his many experiences. These have afforded him the ability to examine himself and justify his actions because there is “no pleasure but meanness” (p. 688) and”…the crime don’t matter…you’re going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it” (p. 687). Despite his overt lack of passion, he realizes he is morally corrupt, but had he pursued a deeper religious understanding, his path might have been different.

Both Grandmother and the Misfit share a denial of reality. The Misfit believes his father died of the flu, when there is evidence that proves otherwise (p. 687). Grandmother tries to convince herself and the Misfit that he is “a good man,” when obviously he is not (p. 686-688). She doesn’t acknowledge any of the events surrounding her family’s demise as she is experiencing them. It is not until Grandmother hears the Misfit’s voice crack over his admitted despair about his chosen path, that she accepts her fate and experiences her epiphany. More importantly, at a state where love and soulful connection transcend all obstacles, the Misfit’s “twisted face close to her own” (p. 688) moves her to her final act of grace. She acknowledges her flaws, helping close the gap between murderer and victim and bond them in kinship.

Francheska and Cydney

The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad

"The Secret Sharer" is told from the point of view of the captain of the ship. One of the main themes we found in the story is Leggart as a reflection of the captain.

The captain is the new commander of his ship and frequently refers to himself as a stranger among his crew. Leggart, the other stranger on the ship, quickly becomes the captain's mirror. The captain and Leggart have many similarities, almost as if they are the same person.

From the very beginning, the narrator says "In a moment he had concealed his damp body in a sleeping-suit of the same grey-stripe pattern as the one I was wearing and followed me like my double on the poop." This is the first instance of mirroring between the two and the similarities continue. Throughout the story, he refers to the man that has come from the Sephora, Leggart, as his double over and over again. The repetition of him as his double shows how connected the captain feels to him. He even covers for Leggart when the captain from the Sephora comes aboard to look for the fugitive.

One difference seems to be their attitudes on the sea. The captain is new and unsure of his position while Leggart is determined and swam for miles to save himself rather then give up and drown. As Leggart becomes more shut away in the captains cabin and less visible to the crew, the captain becomes more assertive. It is almost as if the captain gets his strength and sense of self from the weakening of Leggart. He even gives his first official order and watches it become completed, which makes the crew see him with more respect. While these characters are meant to mirror each other on the surface, their personalities seem opposite and the captain learns from the experience of Leggart.

-Mia & Rachel

"The Cathedral", by Raymond Carver

In "The Cathedral", written by Raymond Carver in 1983, the narrator is the husband. Throughout our posting, we will refer to the narrator with the nickname "Bub" that he was given in the story.

Bub appears to be close-minded in the beginning of the story. In particular, this is true when he says "I wasn't enthusiastic about the visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me" (p. 77). Bub sees the visit as an inconvenience and is a little bothered at the idea of having a blind person in his house. He does not know any blind people nor does he know anything about the blind, and Bub comments "my idea of blindness came from the movies" (p. 77).

The way the story is written is strange in that it is full of very short, non-descriptive sentences. We believe this is to make the narrator seem very matter-of-fact. It also makes him seem like someone who doesn't normally write. However, because of this experience takes his first stab at it (this story).

There is also the stark contrast between Bub and the childhood sweetheart. Bub is a drinker and drug-user that is not devoted to his job. Whereas, the sweetheart was dedicated to his military career.

He also seems a bit jealous of the relationship between his wife and the blind man. He never mentions his wife writing a poem specifically about himself, but mentions that she wrote a poem about Robert after Robert felt her face. Bub comments, "She never forgot it. She even tried to write a poem about it" (p. 77).

As he gets to know Robert, Bub begins to open up, perhaps with a little help from lots of scotch and some pot. Bub attempts to verbally describe a Cathedral to Robert but fails. Robert suggests he draw it for him and Bub obliges. By the end of the drawing, Bub experiences something new and appreciates its value. Bub keeps his eyes closed after completing the drawing and comments, "It's really something" (p. 87). This makes us believe that the overall theme of the story is Bub moves from close-minded to open-minded causing Bub to experience and appreciate something new and unknown to him.

The Real Thing

“The Real Thing” by Henry James is told from the point of view of an artist who is approached by a couple longing for any type of work they could get. The artist was sure that these new, fashionable, upper class models would have the perfect look for his work, so he hired them. One of the main themes in this story is the contrasts between the different social classes- the upper class, formerly rich Monarch couple and the other poor models like Mrs. Churm and Orante.

The artist is attracted to the Monarchs right away when he sees them. He says they appear as if they had “come straight out of a portrait” (400). “At first I was extremely pleased with her ladylike air, and it was a satisfaction, on coming to follow her lines, to see how good they were and how far they could lead the pencil.” (408) However, Mrs. Monarch was said to “have no variety of expression-she herself had no sense of variety” (408). Mr. and Mrs. Monarch could only be themselves in pictures. They thought that this ability to be the real thing was something of a treasure; however, the artist soon realized that their type was never what the narrator was trying to portray. They lacked the expression and personality required to be “the ideal thing”.

Mrs. Churm is described as “only a freckled cockney, but she could represent everything, from a fire lady to a shepardess. She couldn’t spell and she loved beer, but she had two or three “points”, and practice, and a knack, and mother-wit, and a whimsical sensibility, and a love of the theatre, and seven sisters, and not an ounce of respect, especially for the “h”.” She had the imagination, creativity, and personality that were required to be a successful model. Art is not always about portraying “the real thing”. Beauty is not about perfection. People look at art to see character and personality and something interesting or unique. This is the lesson of the story and the artist eventually figures it out and learns from his poor judgment.

A Rose for Emily

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is about the life and death of Emily Grierson. The main themes in this story are the loneliness Emily faces and her resistance towards change. Emily’s loneliness forces her to resist change because her traditions and old ways are all that she has to hang on to due to the death of all her closest living relatives, her living relatives having nothing to do with her, and her lover leaving her. Because Emily was such a recluse, her neighbors and other townspeople are very curious as to what she has been hiding about herself all these years.

We first learn of Emily’s loneliness when the narrator begins to tell us where Emily lives. On page 238 it says, “but the garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily’s house was left.” The town also feels as though Emily is just a “hereditary obligation” because her taxes were remitted by the fathers of the newly elected officials, and she refused to pay. This contributes to her loneliness because she isolates herself by choosing to make the townspeople dislike her. When Emily’s family was alive they too contributed to her loneliness. Her father seemed to run off any men she dated because they weren’t “quite good enough for Miss Emily.” Her family also “held themselves a little too high for what they really were.” Before her father died, he got into an argument with her last known living relatives. Therefore after he died, she had no one but herself and her help. For a few years, during her forties, Emily gave china-painting lessons to some of the girls in the town. But she was again isolated when they grew up and didn’t send their kids for lessons (243). Emily was so isolated from her fellow townspeople that they didn’t even know she was sick until she died at the age of seventy-four(244).

Emily also resisted change because what she had and what she knew were the only stable things in her life. The same paragraph on page 238 that first speaks of her loneliness also first speaks of her resistance to change. It says, “only Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay about the cotton wagons and gasoline pumps—an eyesore among eyesores.” Even though her house is decaying and her street is being industrialized, Emily refuses to move because she has lived in that house for some time making it the most stable thing in her life. She also refuses time and time again to start paying taxes to the city because she hasn’t had to pay them since her father died. She was told that her father had loaned some money to the city and that this is how they would repay it. Not only is she refusing to start paying taxes, but this also isolates her in a way because the town starts to resent her for not paying taxes all these years. Emily also resisted change when the city wanted to put metals numbers on her house so that she would receive free postal delivery; she was completely opposed to this idea (243).

Rebecca and Robin