12/26/2023 0 Comments Bartleby the scrivener themesI agree that this story is not as effective as it could be. If you don't like what you're doing - your job, your marriage, your health - then you can always change it (even if it's hard to do so). ![]() But the truth is and always has been that no one is making you do anything. There are a lot of movies, songs, and comics about how the modern human condition is defined by being a wage slave or constantly striving for affluence. Bartleby was willing to deal with the consequences of hunger, isolation, scorn, and death in order to preserve (in his mind) his personhood. Now I believe that Melville was trying to show how much self-determination we truly possess by taking it to the extreme. But I knew then how to strike a balance between doing what I have to do and not giving away my identity or my agency. Society exists via cooperation, but it's entirely voluntary as long as you are willing to deal with the consequences of not participating in whichever parts you choose.Įventually I got fed up with the struggles I had brought upon myself and started playing the game again. But it did go a long way towards making me realize that no one can truly make me do anything. The drawback, of course, was that I had to deal with the consequences: flunking school, increased strife at home, and being chased around by the cops whenever they saw me on the street. Once I saw how easy it was, I did it often. No one stopped me or even really noticed I was gone. ![]() It all started when I was stumbling in the front door one morning and thought "I don't want to do this, I don't want to be here." I then stood stock still for a moment as I realized, "Wait.I don't have to", then spun on my heel and walked back out the front door. Philosophical experimentation within traditional narrative structures was a favorite pastime of the transcendentalists.Īs I've gotten older, I've developed a second approach.īack when I was in high school, I skipped school a lot. I took it as something of a literary exercise on first pass - that Melville was essentially thinking up something odd for oddity's sake and allowing it to be a tabula rasa for the readers to project upon. I don't think this actually has anything to do with the story, but is rather just anecdotal impression left 10 years after the reading. And so I've been carrying around this Bartleby with me recently and it has helped me be more discerning in my decision making. So recently, things come up and as I'm trying to be more mindful of myself in the present moment, I think, "Is this worth my time and energy?" And quite often the answer is, no, I'd prefer not to. I would prefer to give my energy to things that are meaningful to me. ![]() And I would "prefer not to" live a life like that. And I think a lot about what I guess is called the rat race, being so caught up in working and making money that you can forget to just live and enjoy it. I'm not currently working, but I'll be looking for a job soon. I've been giving a lot of thought to the future recently, what I want to do, but mostly how I want to live. But the reason it's been on my mind, possibly, slightly relating to an interpretation-that phrase: "I'd prefer not to." I read it 10 years ago, though, so my memory of it is a bit foggy. I've actually been unable to remember the character's name and have been waiting for it to come back to me and you did just that! Thank you. This story has been on my mind a lot recently.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |