Bartleby the Scrivener

"Bartleby the Scrivener"
Herman Melville

Well, we already discussed so many aspects of this piece today in class, so I want to focus on some of the questions from the paper.  The third question asks about Bartleby's physical descriptions and their foreshadowing on his outcome.  Throughout the piece, he is described as sort of sallow, small, pale, quiet, and eats only ginger nuts.  These all contribute to his death in the end of the story because he is a weak person who has pretty much given up on life.  Another questions asks about the tales of Turkey and Nippers.  I thought some parts of their descriptions were hilarious, especially the thought that one was bad in the morning and fine in the afternoons while the other was hard working in the morning and terrible for the second half of the day.  "When Nipper's was on, Turkey's was off, and vice versa.  This was a good natural arrangement under the circumstances" (Melville, page 647).  I think that the narrator introduced these two characters first in order to partially characterize himself.  He was very passive towards them and allowed all sorts of mediocrity.
      My favorite scene of the story was when Bartleby said he preferred not to do something, and then Turkey kept saying "prefer."  It was hilarious and seemed right out of a sit-com.  Other parts of the story were incredibly boring and very hard to finish, but I better understand the purpose now because of them.