Dustin Mills English 102 Dr. Elizabeth Sachs Essay #2 " I prefer not to," "I prefer not to," also tells the reader about Bartleby isolating himself. The phrase shows his lack of involvement, another form of isolation. The narrator tells the reader exactly what he did to Bartleby. The narrator's cultural conditioning affects his point of view greatly, didn't notice he was isolating Bartleby and tried to help, but Bartleby was succumbed to isolation. In the story, the …showed first 75 words of 415 total…

…showed last 75 words of 415 total…life, the strange are always isolated from the normal. In the end, the narrator tries to save Bartleby from his undoing. But in those days the strange were looked down upon or ridiculed so Bartleby let himself be isolated from society. Bartleby by working in the dead letter office may have brought this isolation in to his life we don't know, but if you asked Bartleby to answer he would say, " I prefer not to".