Questions for Class Discussions.

Characters:

1. Protagonist / Antagonist? The protagonist of the story would be the Boss and antagonist Bartleby because he makes his Boss's life hell.
2. What is the Boss up against in the person of Bartleby? The Boss is up against trying to make Bartleby do something or find out a reason why he isn't doing anything.
3. Does Bartleby represent a force beyond himself as an individual? Bartleby does represent a force beyond himself because humanity forced him to be that way.
4. Major / Minor Who are the major players in the story? What do we know about them? The Major players in this story is Bartleby and the Boss. The minor players are Turkey, Gingernut, and Nipper.
5. Are they likable? All players are likable except Bartleby because he never wants to do anything and the Boss doesn't do anything about it.
6. Sympathetic? Realistic?-(What's the function of the story's minor characters?) The function of the minor characters are to represent what is socially acceptable in the workplace. And what is expect of people when they are working.
7. Dynamic / Static-Who changes? Who stays the same? Everyone stays the same except the Boss. He is heavily troubled and realizes why Bartleby always denied his request.
8. Is the story about growth or change? The story is about change and how the Boss is affected because humanity forced Bartleby to act that way.
9. Round / Flat-Who is the round character? Who are the flat characters? The Flat Characters are Bartleby, Turkey, Gingernut, and Nipper. The round character is the Boss because he is challenged by a person who refuses to work for him or give him a reason why.

Point of view:

1. Who tells the story? The story is in the perceptive of the Boss many years later when he tells the story of Bartleby.
2. The first person narrator, who is flawed but human…He's reliable, we trust him. His actions definitely support what he tells us about himself; especially the part about being a man who likes to take the "easy" way. What else is gained by telling this story from the Boss's perspective? What we also gain from having the story told for the Boss's perspective is that we get to see how much he was troubled by Bartleby and how far he was willing to go to find out.
3. Why not Bartleby's perspective? Why not one of the other clerks? The perspective can not be from the other clerks or Bartleby because the only person who changes and learns something is the boss.

Plot

1. Exposition:-what background information does the narrator relate that gives us a greater understanding of the events unfolding? Before the Boss is going to tell the story he states that Bartleby was the most peculiar person he ever meet and is why he affected his life.

1. Why does the information about Bartleby's previous employment come at the end of the story rather than at the beginning? The previous employment of Bartleby comes at the end because it explains why his personality was like that. If it was told from the beginning we would already know why he acted that way.
2. Complication- how does the Boss react when Bartleby repeatedly refuses to perform his duties? How does his reaction intensify? The Boss gets infuriated when Bartleby contentiously refuses to do anything he decides he can't take it anymore and moves his company to a different location to get rid of Bartleby.
3. What is the Boss's dilemma? The Boss's dilemma is that he can not muscle up the strength to report him to the authority because he would feel guilty if he did.
4. Climax-Where do you feel the events reach their pinnacle? Where is the conflict most intense, the clash most "explosive"? The moment what is most intense is when Bartleby is arrested and sent to jail.
5. Resolution-What's the outcome of the explosion? The outcome of the explosion is Bartleby's death.
6. Epiphany-who has gained insight in this story, Bartleby or the Boss, or anybody? The Boss is the one to gain insight and understanding in the story.

Meaning (Theme):

1. Does the story leave you thinking anything? Feeling anything? What do you make out of it all?The story left me wondering why Bartleby choose to go to his company of all in NYC, and if he preferred not to do things how did they get him to leave the dead-letters office.
2. Passive aggressive people are difficult to accommodate, difficult to ignore. Passive resistance is a radical form of rebellion. Offices, where Americans spend the greater part of their lives, are not democracies. Have a life outside work! Don't expect your occupation to bear the burden of your existence.
   
3. What other ideas does the story suggest to you? Never hire someone who worked in a dead letters office because they a mentally messed up people who will never leave your company.

Irony:

1. The Boss doesn't recognize that his own passiveness is as persistent and frustrating as Bartleby's. Or that his genteel, self-interested interest in Bartleby is leading to no good.Can you think of other ironies? Turkey is peaceful in the morning and by the afternoon he is grumpy, while Nipper is grump in morning and is relaxed in the afternoon.

Paradox:

1. Bartleby is stubborn, self-absorbed, rebellious, and insubordinate, yet many readers, and even the narrator, the Boss himself, have a deep sympathy for him. Why? Others? People sympathize Bartleby because he can't help himself because humanity made him that way.

Ambiguity:

1. Exactly why does Bartleby always "prefer not to"? Bartleby prefers not to because he has seen to much sadness while working in the dead letters office and lost his purpose to live.
   
2. Why can't he make friends, or communicate? He can make friends or communicate because he just doesn't want to do anything or be involved with anyone.
3. What's at the heart of his rebellion? The heart of his rebellion is just people expecting him to meet their requirements in life.
4. Why doesn't he quit and get a different job? Bartleby doesn't quit because there is nothing else he would rather do but that.
5. Why does the Boss have sympathy for Bartleby? The Boss has sympathy for Bartleby because he can't help himself humanity made him that way and Boss just wanted to help him.
6. What else in the story seems open to individual readers' interpretation? Why Boss keep trying to help Bartleby when he seems so helpless.
   

Symbol:

1. What do the "dead walls" and Bartleby's "dead wall reveries" represent? The dead walls and Bartleby's dead wall represent that inside he was dead and nothing could bring him back because he lost himself and purpose of living.
2. What's the significance of the setting? Why is it a story of "Wall Street"? The significance of the setting is that someone who has giving up on is in Wall Street where work is demanded at its highest and he was out of place.
3. Why do Turkey and Nipper have nicknames, but the Boss is never named, and we never learn Bartleby's anything about first name? We never learned theirs because a name does not identified you but what one does in life identifies you.
4. What's in a name? A name is a title to differentiate you from others.
   

Your Questions, My Questions….

1. Why don't we know Bartleby other than what we see of him in the story? Is that a weakness of the story? We don't know anything else about Bartleby in the story because he knew anyone else he was a loner and had no one to claim him.
2. Why doesn't the Boss just fire Bartleby? The boss doesn't fire him because he is confused why he keeps refusing with any reason and wants to find out.
3. What does the Boss do for a living? What kind of company is he running? The boss is the Master in Chancery of a coping business. They made copies of files and documents.