Bartleby

"I would prefer not to." (page 653)

This annoying phrase is repeated throughout the entire story. Everytime he was asked to do something, he gave the same response. I still don't understand why he said this over and over. It was really difficult to read this book and relate to his character or any character because of how annoying Bartleby's character was. I wish that I understood his reasoning behind the way he reacted to things so that I could sympathize for his character a little. The narrator sympathized for Bartleby at the end of the chapter because he has a sense of peace when Bartleby dies. I feel like Bartleby partially would "prefer not to" do things because of people specifically asking him to do that. He didn't want to conform to what other people had been asking or telling him to do, so he just "preferred not to". Maybe, Bartleby just wanted to be an individual so much so that he did everything that he could in his power to do so. However, it didn't really turn out very well for him.