Bartleby
... scriveners by a high folding screen. No one can see into his area. He had a small window, but all that could be seen from it are “grimy brickyards and bricks” (113). Bartleby seemed content with this small area since no one ever saw him leave. Formalists also look at the characters when looking at literature. Bartleby is an enigma. He never leaves the office, his new home. When he does not feel like doing something, he responds with “I would prefer not to” (114). Bartleby does not represent any certain aspect of history or Melville’s view of something in life. Bartleby is just a homeless person who makes his little corner his shelter. The narrator is always trying to help Bartleby in some way. Before Bartleby is taken to prison, the narrator even offers to let Bartleby stay in his home (129). He even pays the “grub-man” (130) to give Bartleby anything he wants to eat. The characters do not represent anything in particular. They are just ordinary people. There is irony to look at in the relationship between the narrator and Bartleby. Though Bartleby prefers, at times, not to do the job he was hired for, the narrator keeps him in his employment. The narrator discovers Bartleby to be living in the office and he does not leave after the limit of six days (122...