Did the wall street crash cause the great deppression?

In the commencing essay, I will be evaluating whether the Wall street crash caused the Great Depression or not. I will be discussing whether is has played a major part in the Great Depression, whether it was just a minor incident.

The Wall Street Crash was a defining moment in the American economic history. It occurred on October 29, 1929. Before this, the American economy was booming. During the 1920’s, share prices were rapidly increasing and businesses were doing very well. The image the world received from America was that that everyone was rich, which wasn’t. The farmers were given very small amounts of money for their work. This meant that people had more money so more products were being sold. There was a lot of speculation that share prices would continue to rise. However, in 1929, the stock markets began to fall dramatically and caused devastating effects on the American economy. This was the beginning of long-lasting consequences for the whole country, and the world. The Great Depression was a long gradual period in which America suffered great economic depression, during which financial activity slowed down and unemployment was high. America had a high rate of starvation, homelessness and poverty. People were living in poor conditions with very little money.

There were a few causes of the Wall street crash.

One was overproduction. Throughout the 1920’s there was a man known as Henry Ford began to produce cars at an extremely rapid rate. The amount of goods produced by the industry was increasing especially these auto mobiles,l and consumer goods. However, this was stopped from the 1930’s. As a result of overproduction, there was not enough wealth for people to keep on buying.

The second cause was the weakness in banks. At the start of 1920, there were 30,000 independent banks. Most of these were small banks, in rural areas. They were liable to being withdrawn loans by their customers in large amounts. 10 years later, 5000 banks were gone, which was 1/6th of the country’s banks.

Another main reason was the extremely uneven distributions in income. In 1929, a staggering 1/3 of the country’s wealth belonged to just 5% of the population. Meaning that just 2/3 belonged to 95%. This was a factor of overproduction as limited amount of people in the country could afford new products.

Probably the main reason why the Wall Street Crash happened was that there was an international problem with the economy. The ability of the European country’s being able to sell goods to America and helping them out with debts, was limited by a Tariff policy which was introduced. This policy (Smoot-Hawley Tariff) was increasing the tax on imports. As a result they were not helped and assured by European countries with trades.

This Wall Street Crash impacted many things. As well as the economic downfall, it also caused banks to come to bankruptcy. People borrowed money from the banks, and when the Wall Street crash happened, they were unable to pay the banks back. More than $8.5 billion was loaned out, which is even more than the entire American economy. This great crash also affected the everyday lives of the American citizens. Over 20 million American citizens lived on $2000 per year. People lost their jobs because the business they worked for couldn’t afford their wages. So people began to work in the agriculture. Also, all businesses were struggling to survive in this crash. Share prices increased rapidly, and the businesses were unable to pay for their stock. This was a cycle which inflicted on each other, and each one started from the other.

The Wall street Crash itself was not the sole reason of the Great Depression. There was very severe drought in the 1930 in the USA, which impacted America even more. If the farmers were unable to grow crops, how would they receive money, and feed their families? If the businesses do not receive the crops, how would they be able to keep receiving profits? As a result, these farmers had to sell their land. This was when famous author John Steinbeck wrote the book ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, which was based on this drought. Also, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff as mentioned above, was a vital part in this depression, as trades were limited.

In conclusion about whether the Wall Street Crash caused the Great Depression, personally I believe that the Wall Street Crash was not the sole reason for the Great Depression, but was definitely the main reason. If there was no economic downfall, the Great Depression would not have happened. The Wall street crash opened doors for many different problems, such as bankruptcy. If the Wall street crash itself did not happen, these things would not have occurred.

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Why did wall street crash in 1929?

In 1929, there was a complete lack of confidence in the U.S. economy, leading to many, many investors selling their shares. This is known as the wall street crash. This was caused by a number of short and long causes, of which I will elaborate on later.

Firstly, we must consider the old policy of tariffs in Europe. This is very important because of the fact that Europeans could not afford u.s. goods, as the tariffs for the buying of u.s. goods was too much for Europeans to pay. Another reason the Europeans could not afford to buy u.s. goods is because most European countries had hefty war loans they had to pay back to America, which they were struggling to pay back as it was.

There was widespread poverty in the u.s.a. in the 1920’s. almost 50% of American households had an average income of under $2000 p.a. this purchased only the bare essentials in life. The worst hit were the black people and new immigrants, who were highly discriminated against. Many black people lived in poverty in rural cities in america. New immigrants to america were given the lowest paid jobs, as Americans were highly prejudice against Europeans, plus they would work for anything just to live in america. With the collapse of trade unionism, there was little leeway for workers to bargain for better wages.

The two reasons previously mentioned, let to overproduction of goods in the u.s.a. as american citizens could not afford to buy any u.s. goods as they were in dreadful poverty. People overseas could not buy u.s. goods as it would be too expensive for Europeans as the u.s.a. had imposed tariffs which taxed the import/export of u.s. goods. The small amount of people that could afford the products had already bought exactly what they had wanted. There were too many goods, and not enough people to buy them.

In the early 1920’s, the american stock market was doing fantastically because of the boom in business created by the u.s. internal market. But, however in the mid-20’s the speculation of stocks began to increase. This is to say that people were investing in a company merely in the hope of share prices rising. As more and more people invested this way share prices rose out of all proportion to their real value.

Since the u.s.a. had set up its internal market it had been easy for americans to borrow money on credit. Small investors used this borrowed money to buy stocks(“on the margin”) small investors knew that if they lost this money they would not be able to pay this back. If the banks had not been paid back by the creditors, they would not have the money to loan to people trying to buy “on the margin”, and so many banks close.

In the autumn the experts of stock market began selling their stock as they could see that share prices were over valued. This panicked small investors, and they began selling madly. This lead to banks losing money from the loss of shares. This in turn lead to the collapse of the stock market. This is the wall street crash

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Case Study: What Is Up with Wall Street?

NORTHCENTRAL UNIVERSITY ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET Learner: Demetrice S. Campbell | | MGT7019-8| Douglas Buck| | | Ethics in Business| #3 Paper- Case study: What is Up With Wall Street? The Goldman Standard and Shades of Gray| | | Academic Integrity: All work submitted in each course must be the Learner’s own. This includes all assignments, exams, term papers, and other projects required by the faculty mentor.

The known submission of another person’s work represented as that of the Learner’s without properly citing the source of the work will be considered plagiarism and will result in an unsatisfactory grade for the work submitted or for the entire course, and may result in academic dismissal. ————————————————- ————————————————- ————————————————- Faculty Use Only ————————————————- <Faculty comments here> ————————————————- ————————————————- lt;Faculty Name><Grade Earned><Writing Score><Date Graded> Running Head: What Is Up with Wall Street? The Goldman Standard and Shades of Gray What is up with Wall Street? The Goldman Standard and Shades of Gray Demetrice S. Campbell Ethics in Business November 11, 2012 Abstract Case Study of Goldman Sachs What is up with Wall Street? The Goldman Standard and Shades of Gray was a case study focused on the company Goldman Sachs and the unfolding of a horrible decision that affected the economic structure of our banking system, stock shares, and the government.

Their strategies to make a more successful business, ended with them being greedy for more money and success. These strategies lead to questions of their ethical standards in their business practices. The company was founded by Marcus Goldman and Samuel Sachs in 1869 (Jennings, 2012). The company was supposed to provide loans to small businesses, but instead Goldman wanted to do investments. Greed caused the company to turn a blind eye to what was really going on and this resulted in several downfalls for the company and others involved.

The 1929 market crash was one result of the company’s practices. Rather than doing what was right, Goldman and Sachs just carried on running into many walls. The problem to be investigated is the ethical standards of the company in relation to their investors and the price they pay. Introduction The problem to be investigated here is the ethical standards of the company in relation to their investors and the price they pay. In the corporate world, business ethics are very important and can be costly. Sometimes ethics can be over looked to motivate people.

Ethics should be important elements of our day to day functions. It is important to realize the importance of business ethics if you want your business to grow. This could have a positive or negative impact on the productivity of the company. Business ethics are made up of a lot of subjective topics. Some people think that business ethics are comparative. There are many things that businesses take part in that can be seen as gray area. Gray areas are situations in which the rules are not clear, or you are not sure what is right or wrong.

Key items include lying and false representation. Goldman may have committed both these behaviors just to have greed and a successful company. Things that Goldman did that would be in the gray area include: a. Sophisticated Investor–by definition, it is to escape full disclosure to its clients. Goldman made offerings to sophisticated investors, but failed to tell the whole story and their position in the investment or the market. Since then, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act has better clarified the definition to prevent firms from withholding information b.

Analysts and two opinions—He failed to follow the rules on the consistency between the analysts’ internal conversations and their communications and the external recommendations of the SEC rules require because it was for a particular group as strategists. The rules did not apply if their name did not have the word analyst in it. c. Auction rate securities—it took state law to come up with a settlement of these problems. The SEC had difficulties applying regulations and laws to this behavior of bidding up the price and then not buying.

The clients were not aware that Goldman was bidding on the securities. Goldman’s response as well as some others was that there was always investment houses bidding in such auctions. d. IPO allocation and structure of the market—this also was eventually settled, but not without the insistent small fines and new rules on IPO allocations and agreements between the clients on second-wave agreements to buy more. e. IPO profitability changes prior to IPO—Goldman failed to share that the steady drift from three years of profit to one year then down to one quarter.

This was sort of a unique legal problem in regards to the profitability standard to one quarter because the financials were available on the dot-coms for the investors to see. Nothing was being disclosed. f. Partnership to corporation structure—When Goldman decided to change from partnership to a corporation, this shielded them from being liable, where as being the principals, you put it all on the line. The move to a corporation with limited liability resulted in riskier practices taken by the firm.

Goldman was guilty creating a company and buying 90 percent of the shares with its own money. This practice made the public want in on the deal not knowing they were being misled. This allowed him to sell the shares he bought for more money; while he buys more shares on the secondary market and causes the share prices to increase. He then turned around and used his money to create another corporation. (Jennings, 2012) Goldman was also engaged in laddering, which is an agreement between Goldman and its best clients for the distribution of a portion of the IPO at a reestablished price.

However, under a laddering arrangement, those clients also had to agree to purchase a certain number of shares later during the IPO rollout at a price of $10 to $15 higher. (Jennings, 2012) Goldman also participated in auction-rate markets. He gave loans to executive members in exchange for shares. Many of the issues included the nondisclosure of facts that an investor would have deemed very important in making their investment decisions. Goldman and Sachs were guilty of false impression, simply because the investors were not aware of their position in the market.

There is also the point of moral vulnerability and how allowing AIG to be bailed out provided a cover for Mr. Goldman and his sneaky business practices. Then there is the “too big to fail” issue, this is important because the investors were the one who lost money, not Goldman. He was protected. The front page of the newspaper test was a winner in this case because the headlines did not prove to be flattering for Goldman. The Senator’s questions reflected the struggle of the people who were trying to understand how and what Mr.

Goldman had done complied to the law, but still come across as a deceptive practice. The law is only one part of the ethical analysis. Goldman failed to think through the consequences of additional regulations, the fines that would be involved, and the clients because of the perception that he could not be trusted and may not always be acting in the best interest of the client. There areas affected by the Goldman model and gray areas include: investors, the market, the U. S. conomy and the global economy, AIG, AIG investors, employees of AIG and other companies and investment banks that had to be dissolved or acquired or reduced in size, employees of dot-coms, beneficiaries of donations by companies and investment bankers, nonprofits also were affected because they had their endowment funds invested, real estate markets because of the impact in value, all those affected by a slump in the real estate market including real estate agents and brokers, contractors, furniture and window covering companies, decorators, landscapers. A little of everything was affected by these strategies and gray areas.

Some of the people that were effect by Goldman’s decisions were his clients as well as some of the top employees, such as Lloyd Blankfein. (Jennings, 2012) Investors thought they were going to receive money on their purchase. No employee or officer should take unfair advantage of anyone through manipulation, concealment, abuse of privileged information, misrepresentation of material facts, or any other illegal trade practice. (Jennings, 2012) The main factors that contributed to the way that the employees, executives, traders, and advisers made their decisions were money and political power.

The idea of being “Filthy rich by 40,” and the enticement is what produced so many millionaires so early in their lives. Many companies are cutting back on their financial-incentive programs, but there are many things that can be used to motivate employees. Goldman worked “toes to the line” culture, always looking to find the next big loophole available. The culture was also, “If it is legal, then it is ethical”; which is not always the case. (Jennings, 2012) Goldman’s behaviors are a typical image of Carr’s theories. (Jennings, 2012) Could it be bluffing of Goldman to not reveal their positions or were they just tricking innocent people?

Not everybody is aware and knowledgeable of the rules of the Wall Street. The larger investment bankers clearly were aware because of their own involvement in IPOs to auction securities to their structuring of the CDOs. However, these investments made their way to the retail level where the knowledge base was nonexistent. Goldman and others believed them to be sophisticated investors by definition and it was unnecessary to share. However, that definition has now changed and more disclosure is required because they obviously did not understand the double positions.

This is saying that the culture that existed at Goldman before will stay the same. The drive to be successful and the fact that Goldman does not feel that its client base will be affected is why things will go on as business as usual. In other words, Goldman emerges with a fine but little remorse and a plan to go forward with the status quo. It does not seem as if any lessons were learned. Compare & Contrast Senator Collins has made clear that there was no legal fiduciary duty, but she questioned whether Goldman needed to act in its clients’ best interests as an issue of good business practice.

The discussion states, Goldman struggled with that answer and could only come to the conclusion that it was “an interesting idea. ” Goldman had a mentality that only the strong can survive in the markets. However, he did not take into account that with new regulations and the changes in the market; he could no longer engage in those legally gray areas and would be obligated to compete on a different foundation other than his normal loopholes Conclusion Business ethics are very important to have but sometimes they can conflict with personal ethics.

Owning a business can be a risky task. You have to make the decision of what is more important to you, is it the money that drives you or the will to do what is right and ethical. Goldman was not producing but he trick the investors into giving money without every showing anything. This is a very common thing that most investors never realize until they have lost millions of dollars. References Jennings, M. (2012). Business ethics: Case studies and selected readings. (7th Ed. ). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

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Occupy Wall Street

Title of Paper Discuss the moral and economic implications involved in the movement. The Occupy Wall Street Movement began September 17, 2011, in the Liberty Square of Zuccotti Park located in New York City. The protest is against corporations that take advantage of the economic poor and social inequalities, corruption, greed, and the excessive power of corporations on government over the democratic process.

The group Occupy Wall Street has spread globally to over 1500 cities, they are demonstrating against the destructive powers of major banks and multinational corporations. These powers have influenced the government to bail them out, then turn around and make multimillion dollar profits which has created an economic collapse. The protest is against the 1% group, which refers to banks, the mortgage industry, the insurance industry, which leaves the 99% that aren’t in the multimillion dollar profit groups we are the made of the everyday people, the little guy.

Occupy Wall Street protestors viewed the dominant rich as those who exploited their way to the top. OWS suggested that it was the taxpayers who had to bail the large companies out after they caused the collapse of the economy (Haidt, 2012). Analyze each of the implications identified above against the utilitarian, Kantian, and virtue ethics to determine which theory best applies to the movement. Support your position with examples and evidence. Utilitarian is the moral doctrine that we should always act to produce the greatest possible balance of good over bad for everyone affected by our actions.

The greatest happiness of all constitutes the standard that determines whether an action is right or wrong. Our belief that we are individuals and society is the net result of our choices. For example, the practice of blowing up rocks to release underground natural gas would not be permitted near residential areas if energy complaints did not make large campaign contributions (Cohan, 2011). Determine who is responsible for income inequality and wealth distribution in the U. S. in your analysis, make sure to include if this is something that happened suddenly or if it built up over time.

Explain you rationale. Suggest an equitable outcome from the movement that would be appropriate for our capitalistic society. It has been said that the OWS movement is a big hypocrisy. That it is a large number of Americans that are rich by the world’s standards that we are not satisfied being paid what we value our work is worth on the global market. That now we are complainers, unable to care for ourselves, since we no longer have our parent to cry to, so now we are groveling to government and the successful businesses (Erich, 2012).

Predict whether the movement will continue, fade away, or turn into something else. Provide a rationale with your response. Within the months since the movement began, they have lost their momentum and are drifting farther away. The movement has been driven off the streets by law enforcement; protestors are being arrested and evicted by the thousands, a very visible steep decline. This has left OWS without any operations in many cities and forced the thousands of protestors to defend themselves in courts, which in turn has kept many from returning to the streets.

OWS does not have the leadership structure which makes it difficult to interact in conventional political organizing to support their legislators and Congress like the Tea Party. Most of the activists are upset with politicians; they do not see the electoral politics as the best direction for OWS, therefore complicating matters for the movement’s efforts even more (Haidt, 2012) .

References

  1. Haidt, J. (2012, April 10). The moral foundations of occupy wall street. Retrieved from http://reason. com/archives/2011/10/20/the-moral-foundations-of-occup Stolarik, R. 2012, September 17).
  2. Occupy movement (occupy wall street). Retrieved Nov. 3, 2012 http://topics. nytimes. com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/o/occupy_wa ll_street/index. html Erich, R. (2012, May 09).
  3. The occupy wall street movement: How they could do it the right way. Retrieved November 3, 2012 http://roberterich. hubpages. com/hub/The-Occupy-Wall-Street-Movement-How-They-Could-Do-It-the-Right-Way Cohan, P. (2011, October 10).
  4. What is occupy wall street?. Retrieved from www. forbes. com/sites/petecohan/2011/10/10/what-is-occupy-wall-street-print

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Connection between `Bartleby the Scrivener` and Wall Street

The main character, namely Bartleby has been portrayed by the author as a weird person who is also an outcast. He is an overwhelmingly dejected and friendless man, who seems absolutely not capable of finding work that will keep him happy. He does not even like living and life itself is very tiring for him.

According to sources, the world in which the central character lives is that where a man works and earns till the time that he is dead. For a number of reasons he is considered an outcast. The person who he works for who remains unnamed in the story is a lawyer. He makes a number of attempts to connect with Bartleby but fails.

In some way, he is able to have compassion for the eccentric scrivener, but he just cannot or will not help him. Since the beginning of the book, the explanation of Bartleby is arresting. He is portrayed as a person who has already faced death, and is portrayed just the way a person would explain a dead body or as one would illustrate a ghost. “Pale from indoors work, motionless, without any expression or evidence of human passion in him at all, he is a man already beaten. Even his famous statement of non-compliance, “I would prefer not to,” is an act of exhaustion rather than active defiance” (About Bartleby the Scrivener, 1999).

Going on, the author mentions Bartleby’s fondness of staring at the wall in front of his office. Wall Street has been defined by the author as a lonely, gloomy landscape both totally not natural and hopelessly empty, which perhaps resembles the nature of Bartleby himself. As is said by the narrator of the story, Wall-street is a place that is deserted all the way through the day as well as the night. It is just empty. The building where he lives too, which of week-days bustles with business and life, at dusk echoes with utter vacancy, and the Sundays are just despondent.

This is the place which is chosen by Bartleby as his home; solitary observer of a seclusion which he has seen all heavily populated—a genus of naive and malformed Marius menacing amid the carcass of “Carthage! I now recalled all the quiet mysteries which I had noted in the man. I remembered that he never spoke but to answer; that though at intervals he had considerable time to himself, yet I had never seen him reading—no, not even a newspaper; that for long periods he would stand looking out, at his pale window behind the screen, upon the dead brick wall” (Melville, 2004).

Bartleby has created his own safe heaven at Wall Street. He lives there all the time, perhaps trying to ignore the world and its conformities at all costs. Without the defensive wall, Bartleby would have to face the world outside, and Wall Street saves him from meeting the expectations of the entire society and joining a world where he could survive only if he became what the society would have made him. He must either do the accepted thing or die. Since Bartleby cannot be conventional, he has no other choice but to die.

As is said by reviewers, the character under consideration is perhaps the most secluded character ever seen in literature. The environment that he lives in has cut him off from nature as well as from other human beings. “By day, Bartleby’s window stares at a wall. Wall Street is a bleak and unnatural landscape, and Bartleby also stays there at night, when the bustling human population vanishes and the streets become desolately empty” (About Bartleby the Scrivener, 1999). Conclusion

In the light of the above discussion we can hereby culminate that the connection between Bartleby and Wall Street is perhaps the loneliness and gloominess that they both share. Bibliography About Bartleby the Scrivener. (1999). Retrieved on December 19, 2006 from: http://www. gradesaver. com/classicnotes/titles/bartleby/about. html Bartleby the Scrivener. (2008). Retrieved on December 19, 2006 from: http://www. enotes. com/bartleby-scrivener Melville, Herman. (2004). Bartleby the Scrivener: A story of Wall Street. United States of America. The Art of Novella. ISBN: 0974607800

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Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street

Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street is one of the most famous short stories written by world renowned author Herman Melville. John Self in his article in The Asylum describes the book as a keystone of modern literature. Published anonymously in November and December of 1853, it was again reprinted in The Piazza Tales in 1856.

Much as it is a classic, it still baffles a lot of critics and have been subjected to various interpretations by many. The story of Bartleby continues to live on and tells of a story that is honest and profound.

The best interpretation of the story which is deeply rooted in the cultural and actual economic makings of the United States is the theme that exploits the rise of capitalism during the time prior to the writing of the story. This makes the story something that is relevant and makes it a faithful account of the realities of the society during that development in the US economy. The economic transformation that happened did not only modernize the country but also affected the psyche of the working class as well as the personal relationship between employers and employees.

The Wall Street being a major element of the story and considering the fact that it is currently one of the financial hubs of the US, one can assume that the author has a good eye for future financial potential. Allan Moore Emery, in his article “The Alternatives of Melville’s Bartleby”, praises Herman Melville in his scholarly use of philosophy, theology and actual sources as he injected them with subtlety into his work. To have a thorough grasp of the the theme, one has to dissect the different elements in the story to see a clearer picture of how it relates to capitalism.

The story is narrated by a lawyer who has a business of taking care of mortagages, bonds, and title deeds of wealthy men. This alone showcases the proliferation of real estates and high rise buildings during that time in New York creating a financial market that involves the employment of lawyers by men to protect their assets and properties. This further emphasizes that capitalists have acquired capital and required proper documentation for ease of business transactions. In the story, the lawyer already employs 2 scriveners, Nippers and Turkey, who copy legal documents by hand.

He also has Ginger Nut who works as the office errand boy. The author in a way does not give specific details into his personal description of his characters making them all the more interesting and intriguing. However, it is notable how the author refers to his staff using nicknames and not by their formal given names. One can assume of the impersonal relationship of the lawyers with his workers. Here, the dominance felt by the upper classes is accentuated because of the actuations of the lawyer being the top person in the ladder.

He feels that because he is the one paying the salary of his employees, he has power over them inside the office. He describes them in a manner that is not very flattering. He comments that though Turkey works well in the morning, his output deteriorates in the afternoon. Opposite is the case for Nipper, who because of his indigestion, works better in the afternoon than in the morning. Ginger Nut was given the nickname because he was always asked to fetch Ginger Nut cakes for the two scriveners. Here, Melville has a stab at humor to hide the sarcasm that is evident in the descriptions.

The lawyer though pointing out the quality of his men’s work always has a critique for their work attitude. He points out their malfunctions but never even admitting any shortcomings from his side. The different characters of the employees are a representation of the structure in a capitalist environment. The staff embodies a work force that have little room for advancement and working on monotonous tasks that takes a lot of patience in the long run. To cope with the intellectual dead end, one can be physically affected or find short means of escape to fathom the same work everyday.

Thus, the break in the output of the lawyer’s staff is their way of coping with the stress of monotony. The story then further unfolds in the introduction of Bartleby who was hired by the lawyer to act as a third scrivener because of his growing business. Bartleby’s disposition can be described as eccentric and forlorn. A lot of the critics cannot help themselves to compare the attitude of Bartleby to Herman Melville. When Melville wrote this, it was a time in his life that he was also experiencing depression because of the failure of his work “Moby Dick”.

A lot of the readers assumed that he probably patterned the character of Bartleby to his own (SparkNotes Editors). Bartleby appeared to be a satisactory worker with quality output as is characteristic of new hired employees in an industrial setting. The day came when he said the famous line that was the turning point of the whole story. When asked to proofread a copied document Bartleby said, “I would prefer not to” (Melville 18). This astounded the lawyer but made him more curious of the personality of Bartleby.

In the normal business world of today, one only has to finish the sentence before being escorted out by security. In the story, Bartleby was not fired right away because the lawyer entertained the throught of compassion and considered Bartleby as a charity case. He further mentions how he found out that his stubborn scrivener lives and eats in his office. This may be interpreted as showing that the employer’s feel that their employees are dependent on them for their immediate needs. This clearly shows the capitalist idea that the working class are being fed by their hands.

Bartleby’s outright refusal is symbolic of his impertinence to be a slave to capitalism. Melville skillfully outlined how Bartleby gave up his work entirely and chose to do nothing. This is suggestive of his rejection to conform to the exploitative nature of capitalists. The conflict that arised between Bartleby and his collegues is imminent in the actual workplace. It shows of the struggles between individuals who have different views. It separates those who are management underdogs from those who are courageous enough to effect change.

Turkey and Nippers’ agitation at Bartleby is evident of their clear imprisonment to their dependency on their work and their inability to do something about it because of their age and probably their destroyed morale. Eventually, because of the exhaustion felt by the lawyer to the antics of Bartleby, he decided to leave his office. Bartleby created a ruckus in the old office because of his refusal to move out and was eventually taken by the police and imprisoned. This shows how property rights were strongly enforced during that time.

Furthermore, Bartleby’s act of sleeping on the corridors gives more emphasis on the gap between the capitalist and the working class. Though the lawyer tried to offer his house to Bartleby, one cannot be sure of the sincerity of it. One can interpret this as a way of pacification to alleviate the current condition of Bartleby. The capitalists often sugar coat their intentions to bribe and make the working class feel that there is something good that they can offer back. If Bartleby agreed on the lawyer’s terms, he knew that it would be for a fee.

He recognized this outright which made him refuse the offer. The lawyer’s additional act of compassion despite Bartleby’s indifference was to make sure that Bartleby was well fed in the prison. It seems that because of the growing capitalist power, they were able to form laws and punishments that will inhibit the obstinate acts of the workers but making it still appear moral by finding means of appeasing them as what is shown by the act of the lawyer. It is a way of paying for their conscience rather than a genuine act of compassion.

The death of Bartleby is an abrupt end that provided yet another open interpretation from the readers. His refusal to eat the food offered him is an act of self-preservation wherein until his last breath, he never allowed to get swallowed by the capitalist power and died with his principles intact. The story ends with the lawyer’s uncovering of Bartleby’s past. Bartleby used to work in a Dead Letter Office and the lawyer assumed that this was the cause of Bartleby’s absurd behavior. It is arrogant of the lawyer to assume this without further knowledge of the real story behind Bartleby’s life.

It may be that his depression was not caused by the nature of his former work but the mere closing of it. The change of administration that was the alleged cause of the Dead Letter Office’s closing is symbolic of the capitalist’s rise in power paving the way for a structure that is discriminate of the working class. In closing, Bartleby’s sruggle is reminiscent of an era that shaped the current working environment and tells of a story that is not aimed for confusion but for intellectual furtherance. Works Cited Emery, Allan Moore.

“The Alternatives of Melville’s Bartleby”. California: The University of California Press, 1976. Melville, Herman. “Bartleby the Scrivener”. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University, 2002. Self, John. “Herman Melville: Bartleby the Scrivener”. The Asylum. 7 June 2010 < http://theasylum. wordpress. com/2009/05/21/herman-melville-bartleby-the-scrivener/ SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Melville Stories. ” SparkNotes. com. SparkNotes LLC. n. d. 7 Jun. 2010. <http://www. sparknotes. com/lit/melvillestories/section3. rhtml

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The Occupy Wall Street Movement

The Occupy Wall Street Movement The Occupy Wall Street Movement is a movement that has garnered extensive popularity in the last few months. The movement has been covered by all the major news agencies and magazines of our time and is considered to be an iconic representative of the unrest that is steadily accumulating and […]

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