Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street by Herman Melville
A lawyer hired Bartleby to work for him. Bartleby starts out working strong, but then refuses to work with a phrase "I'd prefer not to". Despite multiple injunctions, the lawyer cannot get any work out of Bartleby. The lawyer then justifies keeping him on as a charity case. He later discovers that Bartleby is also living at the office. The lawyer tries to get rid of him, even paying him money to leave. However, Bartleby would prefer not to live. Finally the lawyer leaves the office altogether. The new tenant later comes back to complain to the lawyer about Bartleby. How did Bartleby infiltrate that office in the first place? How can he be so powerful to refuse to do anything with the rationale of preferring not to? Bartleby is quite the strong-willed character.
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