Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville: An Analysis

Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville: An Analysis Bartleby the Scrivener was written by Herman Melville in 1853. The book is about a scrivener named Bartleby, and he continuously answers peoples questions with I would prefer not to (Melville 9). In this short story, Melville is asking his readers what makes people stand out from the crowd, and what makes us individual, independent, and unique? Independence and individuality definitely both have a big role in this story. While being independent and unique are two great things to be, there is a point when you can take it too far, to the point where it starts to affect your life. Conflict often produces character and at times will reveal it. Bartleby is an efficient copyist for a successful lawyer at an office building, but he is a quiet and anti-social man. Though he continues to work well as a copyist, he refuses to help or do any other tasks for the office people, and/or repeatedly says I would prefer not to (10). Bartleby is always in the office either working or looking out of dim window (19) in the sad, and dark world he lives in. The workers then find out that he lives at the office, and his refusal to do nothing but work grows at a much larger scale. As this problem grows, Bartleby announces that he will no longer work as a copyist, and then prefers to stay and live in the office building and do no work. Finally, he is strictly and firmly asked to leave by the lawyer and his workers, but, he still does not leave. Rather than taking more severe measures to get Bartleby out of the office, the lawyer moves his operation to a different office. After that, another practice moves into the building and they find out tha t Bartleby, the copyist from the previous practice is still living there. The new people complain, but the new people are told that Bartleby does not seem to be able to leave. After trying to deal with Bartleby staying there, they call the police to arrest him and bring him to prison. The story concludes with Bartleby refusing to do anything and not eat in prison, and Bartleby dies from starvation. To conclude things, the narrator/lawyer informs his readers/workers that Bartleby was previously a clerk in a dead letter office who sorted through the mail, leaving readers wondering if these dead letters somehow influenced Bartleby. In the short story, the characters attitudes towards Bartleby changes as Bartleby changes. In the beginning, the lawyer, Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut do not really pay attention to him, but since he refuses to do other work for the office, they start to get mad. Except Turkey seems to have the same attitude towards Bartleby throughout the story, he is a drunk copyist who has an uncontrollable temper, and through the story, he continues to hate Bartleby and wants to get violent. Also, Nippers, like his coworker Turkey, is just an ambitious, discontent, irritated, non-morning person and exactly like Turkey, he stays this way through the entire short story. The lawyer says, Nippers, the second on my list, was a whiskered, sallow, and, upon the whole, rather piratical-looking young man of about five and twenty. I always deemed him the victim of two evil powers-ambition and indigestion (7). Ginger Nut, does not have a pretty big role in the story, he is just a 12-year-old, the youngest worker, his biggest job/role is to get snacks and food for all the copyists. But there is the lawyer, and his attitude towards Bartleby is described in the next paragraph. The lawyers attitude towards Bartleby changes throughout the book from kind, to angry, to firm, to caring. The lawyer at first is kind like a gentleman would be when he first meets and hires Bartleby. He pays more attention to his work in the beginning and knows he is doing good at his job, but then he notices Bartleby and gets concerned when he will not do any other office tasks, then he gets quite angry when he finds out that Bartleby is living there. After that, Bartleby says he will not work as a copyist anymore, but he stays and lives in the office anyway, and now the lawyer must make a decision whether to kick him out, or to be nice and think of something else. The lawyer decides to be nice and offer Bartleby a place in his home, but Bartleby does not take his offer. Then, the lawyer gets strict and firmly asks him to leave the office, but he says no, so the lawyer moves the whole operation to a different office. The lawyer and the workers move to a new office, but Bartleby sta ys there. Afterward, the new people at the building call the police on Bartleby and take him to prison where he does not want to do anything, eat, or talk to anyone. Lastly, the lawyer goes to visit him and try to talk to him but Bartleby does not want to talk to him, the lawyer tries to talk some sense into him but it does not work, Bartleby continues to not eat and he starves himself to death. The lawyer becomes very curious how this all started and he finds out what may have started all of this weird behavior from Bartleby. The behavior of Bartleby is a mystery and it is kind of funny but in a weird way, but besides his seriousness and the level of his refusal, he does not change at all throughout the whole story. He starts off like a pretty normal guy, he does his work right, but then he refuses to do anything, eat, or leave the office. He dies and not much happens after that, the lawyer finds out that his previous job was working as clerk in a dead letter office sorting the letters for years. Possibly the dead letters influenced and changed his definition of life. Bartleby symbolizes a dead letter because the Lawyer thinks that after reading all those letters that were supposed to go to someone who is now dead or gone must have influenced Bartlebys perspective on life. Because Bartleby worked at a dead letter office for years, reading and sorting all of them, he is in the state of a dead man, like a dead letter that has never been opened. Bartleby also represents a dead letter because the narrator/lawyer is the sender of the letter, and he wishes to communicate with Bartleby but he can never get through him. This is one of the stronger explanations that explains Bartleby as a dead letter. The idea of undeliverable letters that speed to death, even when they go on errands of life (29). Finally, think about how conflict produces character and sometimes reveals it. There was some conflict between the lawyer and Bartleby, or between life and Bartleby. Because he feels like the lawyer possibly just added more stress in Bartlebys position, making him feel dead, this was kind of an example of failure to communicate. Nearly everything that happened leading up to Bartlebys death goes back to failure of communication or just more stress in the situation. This all revealed the character of Bartleby to the narrator since he found out that he worked in a dead letter office for years, reading and sorting letters, hundreds of failures to communicate entirely changed Bartlebys perspective on life and the meaning of working hard. Word Count: 1266

Learning and Development

Introduction With globalization and modernization, education has become a universal right for all, atleast, at the basic level.   This has seen many students traversing from country to country in pursuit of education.   The introduction of distance learning, technologically mediated learning as well as online courses have made it possible for students from different parts of the world to share classroom. The fact that the teachers largely remain stationed in same countries and are rarely involved in the exchange programs means that teachers are continually under the pressure to instruct students from diverse cultures all with varied English proficiency.   Of significance to the teachers is the fact that despite the different proficiency levels of the students in a single classroom, the teachers are expected to effectively teach the students.   This has seen the rise of integrated classes whereby learners whose English is not their first language are integrated in the same classrooms as their native English speaking students. Teachers are faced with stumbling blocks and numerous challenges in teaching integrated students.   Of all challenges for teachers is the need to provide a free learning environment in which the students can learn without the fear of being incompetent in the English language.   The presence of fear in the students who are not proficient in the English language can reduce the ability of the learners something which can make otherwise intelligent students to perform dismally academically.   To overcome such barriers, teachers can use the following strategies.   According to (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1994) there are several research-based strategies to overcome learning barriers for emergent language learners as well as limited English proficient learners. Therefore for optimal learning to take place the following research based strategies are important for English language learning.   Use of music and jazz chant activities, use of repeat and rephrase approach, use of cooperative groups and peer coaching, use of visual learning aids such as realia, maps, pictures and the multimedia.   Finally pre-instruction activities such as semantic webbing, graphic organizers and KWL charts are all equally important for teachers who are keen on ensuring that English learning benefits all learners inspite of their English proficiency levels. According to (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1994) pre-instruction activities are important to English language learning in that they level the playing ground for students who have different English proficiency levels.   In a research carried out by (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1994) on 15 students with varied English proficiency 80% of the emergent language learners observed that they had significantly benefited from the use of pre-instruction activities such as semantic webbing, graphic organizers and KWL charts.   75% of the students with limited English proficiency recorded satisfaction from the use of pre-instruction activities while 40% of native English speaking students noted that pre-instruction activities played an important role in learning.   The study overwhelming supports the use of the pre-instruction activities as a research based English language learning strategy for integrated classes. Teaching Math can be challenging even in class whereby all students are native English speakers.   It even becomes hard to teach Math in an integrated class in which English presents a communication barrier.   In a class of 30 students whereby only half of students are English speakers with a quarter of the learners being emergent and a further quarter of the class having English proficiency of between Basic Interpersonal Communication (BIC) and Cognitive Academic Language (CALP) presents numerous challenges.   The solution to the above is the application of the research-based strategies such as pre-instruction activities.   This calls for the teacher to prepare in advance semantic webbing with Math concept for students to learn regardless of their English speaking abilities. According to (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1994) the use of semantic webbing greatly increases the ability of the students to grasp Math concepts and formulae.   Graphic organizers are also very effective in teaching some Math concepts especially on geometry and algebra topics.   Visual aids such as realia, maps, pictures and multimedia are important in teaching integrated classes.   As (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1994) notes, visual aids are important in that they increase the attention span of learners, they simplify complex and abstract concepts as well as the fact that visual aids lead to efficiency in the synthesis of complex concepts especially in Math class.   Visual aids have been particularly important and effective for introduction of new topics in integrated classes whereby students face challenges due to increased anxiety, fear and tension (Bowman, & McCormick, 2000). Use of visual aids calls for carefulness so that the visual aids are not as ambiguous and therefore become a source of obstruction.   Visual aids also are advantageous in that they can depict a lot of information at once, which is not possible while using the traditional lecture methods, and are not expensive and are easy to use (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1994). Cooperative groups as well as peer coaching are research-based strategies which involve students forming discussion groups in which they discuss hard topics and concepts during their free time or in the class with the supervision of teachers.   Cooperative groups have been found to be very effective in overcoming fear amongst learners and therefore aiding learning (Bowman & McCormick, 2000).   Cooperative groups are important when there is a shortage of staff in that teachers can oversee the learning over a big group of students. Usually students are able to understand their peers with learning difficulties than teachers and therefore they are able to assist them and overcome the learning difficulties.   According to (Bowman, & McCormick, 2000) cooperative groups presents the teachers with an opportunity to easily assess several outcomes in students such as critical thinking, level as well as communication skills and commitment to learning (Bowman, & McCormick, 2000). Cooperative groups are particularly useful in teaching Math which many students have problems because peer assessment is more welcome by students than teacher assessment and is easily acceptable since it reduces chances of teacher bias (Bowman, & McCormick, 2000).  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to (Bowman, & McCormick, 2000) peer coaching as a research based teaching strategy is effective because it allows for a degree of confidentiality whereby students are not afraid to make mistakes.   The expected learning outcome of using cooperative strategy in the classroom is that, learners increase in their capability to grasp hard concepts (Bowman, & McCormick, 2000). In addition, the approach is non-evaluative which is important to students given the fact that students fear evaluations and assessments.   Repeat and rephrase has been found to highly increase the retention ability of students (McHugh, Catherine & Kevin, 1997).   This is very important for students who are supposed to retain introductory concepts as these develop as the students’ progress to next levels. Therefore, repeat and rephrase are important to an integrated class whereby students whose English proficiency prevents them from progressing at the same level with native English speakers. Music and Jazz chant activities have found to reduce stress levels in learners as well as creating a soothing effect (McHugh, Catherine & Kevin, 1997).   Therefore, incorporating music and Jazz chants in a class especially in a Math class can improve learning in that it creates a good environment for learning. The expected learning outcome of using cooperative strategy in the classroom is that, learners increase in their attention span (McHugh, Catherine & Kevin, 1997). Conclusion Research based strategies are a must use for teachers of integrated classes. In order to ensure that, the environment for all students is ideal in spite of their English proficiency levels, teachers must constantly identify challenges and obstacles to learning so as to overcome all the challenges associated with English language learning environment. It is also important that, teachers choose wisely the suitable strategies to teaching integrated learners as not all approaches are suitable for every subject. Reference Bowman, C., and McCormick, S. (2000).   Comparison of Peer Coaching versus Traditional Supervision effects.   The Journal of educational Research 93 (4). Johnson, D., Johnson, R. and Holubec, E., (1994).   The nuts and bolts of corporative learning. Edina MN: Interaction Book Company. McHugh, Catherine, E., & Kevin, W. 1997.   Using technology to promote student learning:   Opportunities for Today and Tomorrow. Jossey- Publishers.

Frederick Douglass Process Essay - 1012 Words

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The Maya What Was Their Greatest Achievement - 587 Words

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