"Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" Paradox

Paradox
: 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?

Although Bartleby is stubborn, self-absorbed, rebellious, and insubordinate, people like the readers, including me, and the Boss in the story have a deep sympathy for him. The reason why we all feel this way about Bartleby is because we see that he is helpless.  At first, he just seems like an annoying and rebellious employee that doesn't want to do anything.  As the story unfolds, though, we begin to see there is something wrong with Bartleby since he isn't eating normally and he sleeps in the office.  By now, the reader assumes that he has no where else to stay or go and that he has no family to support him.  He begins to show that he is lonely and bored with everything.  It is like he is fed up with the world already.  One can sympathize with him on that because there are points in our lives where we feel that we can't deal with the world.

The story goes on and the reader gradually begins to process that Bartleby does not have a life and doesn't have much going on for him.  All he does is sit in his office doing the same work over and over, refusing to do any other things.  The fact that he doesn't even tend to his basic biological needs worries the reader even more.  I actually felt closer to him somehow so I felt as if I was worrying about one of my own friends.  The reader realizes now that Bartleby is acting stubborn, self-absorbed, rebellious, and insubordinate because there is something making him feel this way.  I knew that something must have happened to him for him to be acting this way because a person does not act that way for no reason.  Even though we don't know exactly what happened to Bartleby, we know that it is something bad and this makes us feel very sorry for him.  He seems so dead inside.  This makes the reader want to help him somehow.

Works Cited:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.spokesmonster.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/bartleby-x3.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.spokesmonster.com/tag/hijinx/&usg=__BkXh6TojmNccugb0LRHrRURBeOU=&h=600&w=500&sz=86&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=nacC2tw9jdvPmM:&tbnh=136&tbnw=106&ei=YdSLTd65E8rZgAfJnOjICA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbartleby%2Bthe%2Bscrivener%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1362%26bih%3D595%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C321&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=118&vpy=57&dur=1123&hovh=246&hovw=205&tx=128&ty=182&oei=YdSLTd65E8rZgAfJnOjICA&page=1&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:16,s:0&biw=1362&bih=595