Bartleby The Scrivener Compared to Wish I Was Here Essay

Short Stories- Evaluative Summaries

The two short stories that I have chosen to summarise are Wish I Was Here By Jackie Kay, and Bartleby, The Scrivener By Herman Melville. Of the four or five short stories we have studied these were the two that I found most entertaining and certainly the ones that I somehow found very able to relate to. They are entirely different styles of writing; from era they are written and set in, to narrative technique. I will attempt to summarise and evaluate these stories with explanations of the Characterisations, themes and imagery in my following two essays on each of them.

Having not read any other of Jackie Kays short stories, I cannot compare the style or narrative techniques to them. I can however say, that from the very first paragraph of Wish I Was Here I was immediately involved. Kay writes in first-person narration and even without misspelling any words or re-jigging language, you can hear the broad accent the character or narrator is speaking with. After the second paragraph you have a pretty clear picture of the kind of person she is. There is one line in particular that made me laugh out loud; Its bound to be a bit boring: two lovers on their own for two whole weeks; when they have run out of things to say, Ill be here to chip in. Kay captures those thoughts that we find even ourselves thinking at the times when we are justifying being somewhere or doing something that we shouldnt be. She also justifies that her decision of coming to crash this couples private holiday again by saying that she has been told in the past that she is good company, more than once, so therefore can be doing no harm in surprising the couple. Kay creates a very distinct innocence in the character Paula, with the clear naivety of her thoughts. She uses terms like the genuine sea and even the rich are casual these days. She writes as the character would talk, or think, and not the way the character would write, which is what makes the language so authentic. You can completely imagine yourself thinking or speaking this way, whether you had been in the same situation or not. Her sentences are structured as if in conversation, not as if in an article or novel. So she will put a comma in a place where you literally would take a breath in a sentence, rather than where would be grammatically correct.

The story is essentially about a middle-ish age woman, by the name of Paula, who has, too late it seems, realised she is in-love with her best friend, Claudette, who has now found someone else. Although the theme of this short story has a very comedic element to it, the underlying truth is actually pretty devastating. This is another reason why this story is so easy to empathise with, because I am sure that anyone who reads it will have been in the position of loving someone for years and years, and will have only realised when that other person finds someone else. But she deals with her tragedy so humbly, and her character becomes more and more endearing to the reader the more she tells you of her relationship with her best friend. She goes on to tell us that she and Claudette always used to go on holiday together, and on one of these times they nearly ended up in bed together, but thought better of it, to spare their friendship of any complication. This is a bitter memory now that she sees the airhead shes been replaced with, sitting at the bar with her Claudette. Throughout her critical description of Jan, Claudettes new lover, she finds herself unable to actually condemn her with any significant faults. I feel so much compassion for Paula at this point as Im sure anyone would. It is that awful moment on these occasions when we, being the lesser part of an equation like this, where we try to find the worst parts of the winners personality, but knowing only too well that they are probably a better person than you, which only makes you seem like a worse person for thinking it or pointing it out in the first place. This is clear when Paula says to Claudette Erm, what is she doing with her hair? And then catches herself by saying, in thought To be fair, Jan is one of those people who can wear any old thing and still look kind of attractive,. This is when you realise that the person they have chosen over you is replacing you because they are essentially better than you, and theres nothing you can do about it.

The picture Kay paints of Paula is very vivid, in my mind. Not only in physical description, but also, I found a very genuine character that I will have definitely met before in real-life. Her language and attitudes to ordinary things or people are so familiar that even if you had not ever met or known anyone like her, you could imagine her perfectly. She comes across as a confident kind of woman, and though with not many friends, she doesnt seem to notice, in her very innocent way; She says that she has a mobile phone, because getting texts are like little love letters, but admits that she doesnt really get any, at least, not very often, and reasons this by saying this is because it must take a while to build up a contact list. I say innocent because she doesnt say this explaining why she shouldnt have many love letters, she plainly sees it that she just doesnt know enough people to get very many, and also the way she doesnt have to justify why this should be.

The story finally ends on a perfect line of dialect from Paula, who has built up the courage to walk over to the new love-birds at the bar, and awkwardly announce Helloooo, look whos-a here. . Her tipsy state is completely understood here, with the description of her zigzagging towards them, and clumsy choice of introduction, leaving the finale of the story on a hilariously uncomfortable note, where you almost know the disastrous reaction that will follow her final statement.

I read this short story Bartleby, The Scrivener., in one sitting in about the space of half an hour. I found it very amusing and very easy to read for this reason. Although Melvilles style is a world apart from Kays, their humorous elements with the underlying devastating truths are very much along the same lines.

This short story is, again, written in first person narrative, although from the first sentence I am a rather elderly man, you can tell that the character is much more conservative, and when you read on, you understand the era it has been written is entirely different. The language and the structure is put together in a much more story-telling kind of way, As opposed to Kays Wish I was here, where her language is conversational rather than formal, as this is. The way this is done is not so much with the tone of introduction, though this is different also, but the way the story is actually ordered. When Kay begins a subject, or something of relevance to what she is talking about, she will simply say it with reference to whatever it is she is referring to. Where as, Melville introduces each paragraph with another paragraph. So for example, he first introduces his story by telling the reader in the first paragraph what the story is about, why he came to write it and why there are none others like it. He then proceeds to his next paragraph where he introduces the following one after that! He explains that to be able to continue with his story of the very, far-from ordinary Bartleby, he must give us a brief outline of who HE (HE being the Narrator) was, where he worked, who worked for him, what his business was etc. And only once he has told the reader all the things he is going to tell, does he proceed to the next paragraph where he actually does.

So I continue to what the story of Bartleby is actually about. To be quite frank, the story has no real storyline. At least, not until you reach the end, when it makes some sort of sense, and even then, you will find yourself questioning the message of it. I do not say this as a criticism of the piece however, in fact, I find it a satisfying challenge to come to the end of a story and to be able to decipher what couldve actually happened, rather than everything conveniently being explained right before the story ends, so that all twists come to and end and there are no more questions. There are many messages or implications that this end suggests, and the openness of the final words allows them all. Bartleby is a very bizarre character who says very little, and gives near to nothing away of where he comes from, why he is there, or what he wants. He merely says what he would prefer. This little part of the story grows funnier as it gets repeated. This word prefer filters through the characters in the story, even when you think he is having almost no impact on them at all at this point. He begins by just replying to insignificant requests with, Id prefer not to.. but you do not notice until you pick up on the other characters who start using the same phrase, when they actually point out, that theyve never used that phrase before Bartleby introduced the mild, unthreatening way of speaking. As the story continues, you find the Character Bartleby less and less of a comical one, but a more mysterious and to certain degrees, quite a dark and mischievous one. This is not because of anything he does in particular, more of what he doesnt give away. You feel he is hiding some crippling secret, that only remains as a secret if he continues to do his routinely duties without question. This would include coming into work, when his services had been withdrawn from the business, so therefore continues to haunt the corridors of the building in order to still fulfil this daily routine.

When this bizarre behaviour all comes to a head, Bartleby is arrested, without really saying anything, and put in a cell. Our Narrator comes to visit him, more out of curiosity at first, then out of pity, as he feels Bartlebys current situation is as a result of his own impatience. Still Bartleby says or explains nothing, and yet you feel that our Narrator begins to understand what this rather desperate character is all about. He finally finds the poor, misunderstood Bartleby, in the corner of the prison garden, dead. Our Narrators last, beautiful words, in reply to the Grub-Man who says Wont he dine to-day, either? Or does he live without dining? he says Lives without dining,, and to this the Grub-Man replies Eh!Hes asleep, aint he? And our Narrator replies With kings and counsellors,.

For my interpretation of this, Bartleby has starved himself to death, for some tragedy that will never be explained, but we can only guess. As a scrivener he may possibly have been faced with documents of sinister or morbid value, that he could not ignore or walk away from, in this world. Therefore he put himself into the position where he would be forced to leave. This is as plainly as a can put it, as I am still debating with myself what the real meaning of the end was. I conclude that the Narrators last words meant that Bartleby could not of course live without dining, therefore he dined with kings and counsellors in the next world, and this being at Gods feast in heaven.