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DanielChungSecondPaper 4 - 05 May 2012 - Main.DanielChung
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< | Love’s most natural opposite is hate, but Melville presents a more nuanced opposite: using other people. As an employer, the narrator of “Bartleby” obviously uses Bartleby and others as scriveners in the office. However, this economic use is not the target of Melville’s criticism. Instead, Melville focuses on the narrator’s using Bartleby to purchase catharsis and righteousness. As the narrator admits, “[Bartleby] is useful to me…Here I can cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval. To befriend Bartleby; to humor him in his strange willfulness, will cost me little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience.” Even when Bartleby repeatedly refuses to do the narrator’s bidding, the narrator tolerates the insubordination and marvels at his own magnanimity. The narrator’s use of Bartley is more problematic than open hatred or contempt because it lulls the narrator into a false sense of self-righteousness. The harm is less visible and thus more justifiable. In fact, the narrator believes that keeping Bartleby in his current capacity is proper because Bartleby would otherwise receive harsh mistreatment from other employers. Melville’s juxtaposition of loving others and using others reminds us aspiring lawyers that our clients and colleagues are not pawns on our social justice chessboard. We should not use cases, clients, and causes to feel good about ourselves, but we should instead focus on doing actual good in the world. Granted, the two are not mutually exclusive, but the latter should be our primary goal. | >
> | Love’s most natural opposite is hate, but Melville presents a more nuanced opposite: using other people. As an employer, the narrator of “Bartleby” obviously uses Bartleby and others as scriveners in the office. However, this economic use is not the target of Melville’s criticism. Instead, Melville focuses on the narrator’s using Bartleby to purchase catharsis and righteousness. As the narrator admits, “[Bartleby] is useful to me…Here I can cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval. To befriend Bartleby; to humor him in his strange willfulness, will cost me little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience.” Even when Bartleby repeatedly refuses to do the narrator’s bidding, the narrator tolerates the insubordination and marvels at his own magnanimity. The narrator’s use of Bartley is more problematic than open hatred or contempt because it lulls the narrator into a false sense of self-righteousness. The harm is less visible and thus more justifiable. In fact, the narrator believes that keeping Bartleby in his current capacity is proper because Bartleby would otherwise receive harsh mistreatment from other employers. Melville’s juxtaposition of loving others and using others reminds us aspiring lawyers that our clients and fellow lawyers are not pawns on our social justice chessboard. We should not use people for our selfish gain or seemingly selfless causes. Instead, we should unite our interests with others and work toward common goals as fellow human beings whose fates are intertwined. | | | Doing |
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