Bartleby the Scrivener

"I would prefer not to." - Herman Melville.

This short story was so annoying! Sorry Mr. Costello, but you got my hopes up when you showed us the video of Bartleby.  I thought this short story was going to be really funny but it just turned out to be super irritating.  No hard feelings, though.  Anyway, the quote above is the quote Bartleby said everytime he was asked to do something he really didn't feel like doing.  The one coincidence I found in the story was that Bartleby seemed just fine doing all these basic tasks until he was asked to do them by someone (For instance, he stops eating while in prison.).  As soon as he was asked to do those tasks, he refused.  Maybe he felt he was going to become subordinate to that person or something.  In the end, Bartleby died.  Perhaps he was asked to do all the necessary activites of life and after refusing to do those, he was unable to live.