The Narrator Says "nothing Is Ascertainable" About Bartleby, but We Know Some Things About Him

1. The narrator says "nothing is ascertainable" about Bartleby, but we know some things about him.

yes we do know some things about him. "Pallidly neat, pitiably respectable and incurably forlorn" (538), those are the exact description of Bartleby's appearance by the narrator. My interpretation is that yes he is gloomy and depressive looking but seems respectful. later the narrator also describes Bartleby can actually be very reliable and industrious person when he wants to be as he had done his assigned jobs so diligently in timely manner.

Bartleby is definitely not an active and aggressive person who would try to change his destiny and take matters in his hand. Instead he accomplishes his protest in passive way like some political activists starve themselves in order to demand change. His answer "prefer not to" implies that it is his intention and choices not to do or not take an action. In the end his behavior and actions of not doing anything results in his self destruction.

2. List all the things we know about him and all the things we can plausibly argue about him. The narrator tells us that his clerks' nicknames are "expressive of their respective persons or characters," but he explains only the relationship between nickname and personality for Turkey (par. 6). How would you explain the appropriateness of Nipper's nickname? Of Ginger Nut's?

3. Re-read the postscript at the ending of the story. Does this explain Bartleby's behavior? How does it explain the narrator's understanding of Bartleby? Do you think that the narrator has changed in any way, positively or negatively, because of his encounter with Bartleby? How do you read his final sigh, "Ah Bartleby! Ah, humanity!"?