Reading & Comprehension

View the Bartleby. IMPORTANT NOTE: This film will be shown in class on Monday, Oct. 19, and Wednesday, Oct. 21. Attendance is mandatory. We will have a discussion of the film after its conclusion on Oct. 21 with the time remaining in class.

Themes

NATURE VS. TECHNOLOGY, MONOTONY OF CAPITALIST LIFE, METAMORPHOSIS, GENDER DYNAMICS, CLAUSTROPHOBIA, ALIENATION & ISOLATION, NONCONFORMITY, MARTYRDOM, IDENTITY, CLASS DIVISIONS & MARXISM.

Discussion Questions & Topics

In Walden, Thoreau writes: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Write a 150-250 word essay in which you explain how Bartleby is or is not apart of “the mass of men." (10-15 minutes).

Review the opening scene of the film. Bartleby stumbles across a freeway overpass and grips the fence in a crooked Christ-like position, foreshadowing his (sacrificial?) death at the end of the film and The Boss’s conversion into Bartleby. If Bartleby is a martyr, what cause does he die for?

Discuss the use of pastel colors in the film, especially the color of the office’s walls and characters’ clothes. What do these colors suggest? Note how in the beginning of the film the color of The Boss’s suit blends into the wall.

Discuss the tension created by technology invading nature (e.g. architecture of office buildings on hilly green landscape) and nature invading technology (e.g. painting of forest on office wall). What does this tension suggest? Review the mise en scène of office buildings at the end of the film.

Review the dream sequence in which Bartleby emerges as a kind of Hitleresque figure. Why is he equated with Naziism?

NOTE: The action of the film mostly takes place in the small office, rendering the film claustrophobic—for the characters as well as the viewers. Bartleby’s constant staring at the vent indicates a desire to escape from the confines of office life. Symbolically it indicates a desire to achieve agency from the technology of capitalism and escape into nature. The dead bird discovered in the vent suggests that this desire will never be realized, however—Bartleby is doomed.

Music is infrequent except in Bartleby’s presence (e.g. weird, twangy theramin). What is the effect of this lack? Would a more prolific use of music enhance the film?

At the end of the film, The Boss adopts the role of Bartleby? What is this role?

Assignments

Short Essay #2: Write a short essay on Bartleby in which you explain how the film addresses the Thoreauesque theme of the machinic subject. 500-750 words. Submit via WebCT. DUE DATE: Friday, Oct. 23, 5 p.m.