Bartleby The Scrivener A Stran

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paragraph 18) His goal, it seems, is to single-mindedly to accomplish as much copying as is humanly possible. The first few attempts on the part of the narrator to tell Bartleby to do something else, no matter how moderate the task, are met with the simple refusal, "I'd prefer not to." (Melville paragraph 21) The narrator reasonably chooses not to punish this insubordination because of both the quality, and the quantity of Bartleby's regular work.
After a series of requests from the narrator that all end in noncompliance, Bartleby shifts his focus from the intensive copying of documents to simply doing nothing at all. This, of course, is a kind of obsession that is not acceptable in the modern work force, and can not feasibly be tolerated by the narrator. As the agent of punishment, the narrator is at this point stuck with making the decision to either sympathize with Bartleby, or lose his professional reputation. In a final attempt to clear his conscience, the lawyer ...

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