Bartleby and Akaky: A Struggle against Social Tide

Herman Melville's Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street is a story reminiscent of the emergence of nineteenth century white-collar working class in most cities in the United States and specifically New York. Melville paints a picture of "Bartleby" a tragi-comic fable about a passive man, invisible to the society and who responds to his condition in the most unusual way leading to his death. It is important to note that this story was written at the height of labor activism when the Wall Street was the center of Political debates on workers' rights amid growing labor movements. Similarly, Nikolai Gogol's The Overcoat is reminiscent of nineteenth-century Russia characterized by challenges of transition from feudal society to a modern society with the advent of industrialization. The author paints a picture of an individual engulfed by the absurdities of life as a result...
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