Blog1 Topic 2

Bartleby’s behavior is not reasonable for the circumstances.

Employees usually follow their boss’s reasonable requests because the boss decides the amount of wage, but Bartleby had never said one ‘yes’ to his boss. Throughout the novel, Bartleby’s boss asked Bartley to either examine the paper he copied with the boss or other colleagues, which is a conventional job of all copyists, or to do a small favor such as going to the Post Office (a three minute walk) or pass a message to other copyists in the office. The boss made the same requests to Bartleby’s colleagues as well and stated his desire to Bartleby in a polite way. I (or maybe many other people), in the role of Bartleby, will certainly accept these reasonable requests not only to please the boss, but also to take the chance to avoid the dull copyist job for a while. But Bartleby rejected his boss every time.

What kind of strategy would make you reconcile someone? Bartleby’s boss made many efforts to let Bartleby follow the requests: reasoning with Bartleby, slightly threatening Bartleby by the rude words of other copyists (both drunken “Turkey” and pirate-like “Nippers”), and making a private talk while ‘begging’ Bartleby to be reasonable. A logical person might agree with the boss after reasoning. A cowardly person or a person who fear to be different from others might become reconciled by the reaction of colleagues. A sensitive person might consent after such a close talk. Surprisingly and confusingly, Bartleby is none of these kinds. He denied all his boss’s efforts, even though his boss reconciled him in reverse and tried to understand him, cooling down after the anger of being rejected.  A reasonable person would not repeatedly respond another person’s kindness with stubbornness and inhospitality.

People would always pursue happiness, including friendship, a healthy body and better living goods, but Bartleby didn’t, though he had the ability to do so. It seems that Bartleby didn’t have friends. Bartleby’s boss would like to treat him as a friend and Bartleby could accept his friendship. Bartleby’s colleagues, who were not evil people, could be his friends as well. If he didn’t like all people in the office, he could go out after work to meet with other people. However, even if he gave up his job as a copyist, he stayed in the office most of the time and almost refused to communicate. Likewise, as copying all day in dim light hurted Bartleby’s eyes, he had never made any reasonable suggestion to his boss to take a rest or to improve his working condition. The boss, tolerated two employees who only work for half of a day and reconciled Bartleby for so many times, would agree with such request for a high possibility. Last but not least, Bartleby only ate ginger nuts and lived in his office, which is extremely simple and crude, though he had enough wage to live better than that.

All such behavior of Bartleby, under the circumstances, is unearthly. He seemed to close himself off the world. I wonder if he lost his feelings or had some mental illness.