"Bartleby, the Scrivener" forces us to take a good, long hard look at capitalism and to see the implications and consequences it has. From the get-go of the story, we come to find that we are dealing with a lawyer (the unnamed narrator) and his law clerks of Wall Street. This lawyer is not a typical courtroom lawyer, but a business lawyer who deals with "rich men's bonds." The narrator also mentions John Jacob Astor--a prominent figure who is famous for amassing a large, private fortune and is known as the first American multi-millionaire. From these characters we can deduce that we are dealing with the relationship between the working class and the people who benefit from them.
When we take an even closer look at the workers in this story, more of the theme emerges. The workers don't exist outside of the Wall Street and the office. The workers are nicknamed in relation to their jobs. For example, Ginger Nut is named so because he often fetches ginger nuts for the office. The line between worker and individual becomes even more blurred. This subjectivity and our experience of Bartleby's strange refusal to work and his death, we see a theme about the alienation of workers under social condition emerge as well as what those dehumanizing consequences are. Bartleby loses himself and eventually starves himself to death in prison.
When we take an even closer look at the workers in this story, more of the theme emerges. The workers don't exist outside of the Wall Street and the office. The workers are nicknamed in relation to their jobs. For example, Ginger Nut is named so because he often fetches ginger nuts for the office. The line between worker and individual becomes even more blurred. This subjectivity and our experience of Bartleby's strange refusal to work and his death, we see a theme about the alienation of workers under social condition emerge as well as what those dehumanizing consequences are. Bartleby loses himself and eventually starves himself to death in prison.