Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street

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.

Twelve Years a Slave

Twelve Years a Slave by Soloman Northup

While Frederick Douglass gets a lot more mention in the area of slave narratives, Twelve Years a Slave really drives home the cruelties of slavery. Solomon Northup just wanted to live his life as a free black man. However, he was captured into slavery. Evil slave traders forced him to hide his true identity and endure cruelties of slavery. He encountered some kind slave holders and some exceptionally cruel ones. He was critical of the entire institution of slavery in that it resulted in such extreme cruelties. Even blacks and kind whites were were debased by slavery.  Eventually, he encountered a Canadian abolitionist who helped send a letter home to bring someone to rescue him from slavery. His rescue almost seemed anti-climatic. While nobody would trust his word that he was free, a white man with documents was easily able to restore him to his freedom. 

After having his freedom restored, his one attempt at action was to press charges against his captors. Alas, the law was on their side. They lied about his condition and his word did not stand up in court. This was a further indictment of the institution of race-based slavery.

The narrative strongly provides a strong indictment of the institution of slavery in a riveting fashion. How could somebody be captured like that and thrown into slavery? The story of slavery in the south is replete with details. There are good events and good people down there. However, at any moment, pure evil could erupt.