Why are Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut introduced before Bartleby in "Bartleby the Scrivener"? Describe Bartleby's physical characteristics and their significance. What is the importance of the subtitle, and what motivates Bartleby's behavior? Does Melville sympathize more with Bartleby or the lawyer?

1. The other scriveners are introduced before Bartleby in order to present their individual characteristics before they are affected by Bartleby's presence. While they are not the perfect workers, the lawyer points out that Turkey works steadily and rather swiftly before noon; Nippers is the opposite, working better after lunch, so between the two the work is accomplished. The lawyer describes them thusly,

Nipper's was on, Turkey's was off, and vice versa. This was a good natural arrangement, under the circumstances.

Ginger Nut, the office boy supplies the two scriveners with cakes and such which relieves their tedium and keeps them going. When Bartleby arrives, he works well alone, but when he is asked to read the legal document in the presence of the others, the introvert shuts down and starts to "prefer not to" do his work because he is so inhibited.

2. Bartleby is first described by the lawyer/narrator as "a motionless young man...pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn!" At first, Bartleby applies himself well to his position; however, the lawyer is disappointed that he is not cheerful, noting that he "wrote on silently, palely, mechanically."

Certainly, Melville's description of Bartleby and the reactions of his employer suggest that there is a lack of understanding of the employer and his perception of Bartleby verges on negativity. Especially the word "incurably" hints that Bartleby's introversion will continue and worsen.

3. The subtitle points to the artificiality of commerce that constructs its own world by building a wall around itself. In fact, walls figure significantly in this story. The extroverted and congenial lawyer himself puts pitiable Bartleby behind a "high green folding screen" so that he is within hearing but cannot be seen. Within the confines of these walls, the commercial system confines and figuratively imprisoned people. In this manner, Melville offers a critique against America as a growing system of capitalism.

4. There is an excellent comparison made of Bartleby to what Jung defines as an introvert [http://www.enotes.com/topics/bartleby-scrivener/characters "Bartleby the Introvert by William Delaney] which provides meaningful insight into Melville's character. 

Melville withholds the information about Bartleby's having worked in the Dead Letter Office allows the reader to sympathize with the lawyer's opinions as well as to reserve judgment on Bartleby at the beginning.

5. Since Melville spent many years on the open sea, his sympathies would certainly be with those opposed to walls and alienation. On the other hand, he would understand the aloneness of man, a plight suffered by Bartleby.

What role do Turkey, Ginger Nut, and Nippers play in "Bartleby the Scrivener"?

These individuals, who range in age from 12 to almost 60, are Bartleby's coworkers. The lawyer who hires Bartleby at first hopes this new employee, because of his "singularly sedate" personality, will be a good influence on fellow scriveners Turkey and Nippers. Turkey, the lawyer observes, can have a "flighty" temperament, while Nippers is often "fiery."

Later, the unquestioning compliance of Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut in doing their jobs becomes a sharp contrast to Bartleby's refusal to work, a refusal signaled by his habitual statement, "I prefer not to."

When the lawyer asks his other workers their opinion of Bartleby after his refusal to work has become entrenched, they mention that he should be fired and might be "luny." None of this moves Bartleby to respond or change his ways.

All three of these employees represent the normal worker. They may have their quirks, but they all understand they have a job to do and try to do it. Their behavior underscores the oddity of Bartleby's extremely passive attitude.

What role do Turkey, Ginger Nut, and Nippers play in "Bartleby the Scrivener"?

One role that Turkey, Ginger Nut, and Nippers play in "Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street" is to present a contrast to Bartleby's characteristics. First, they are industrious and willing to produce usable work, despite their eccentricities and irregularities in behavior. Second, they are successful at establishing an amicable relationship with their employer and finding their way to manage to live and work in the environment society has created, one with no, or at best few, alternatives.

Another role they play is to show the social norms in the post-industrialization capitalist urban work place by highlighting the attitudes of employer and employee. For instance, the employer may criticize the employees' habits of dress and behavior, as the lawyer does, without realizing that an increased wage would give them greater opportunity for making choices about how to live, which would give them less to be criticized about. In addition, with a higher wage and more respect of their independent personalities, the workers may be driven to fewer eccentricities as they try to get through their meager lives the best they can.

What are the characteristics of Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut in "Bartleby, the Scrivener"?

Pertaining to the three employees of the narrator of Bartleby, the Scrivener, their nicknames are Turkey, Nippers and Ginger Nut. Turkey and Nippers are copyists. Turkey is approaching 60 years old and Nippers is about 25 years old. Ginger Nut is an office boy and apprentice law student of twelve years old.

Turkey is the one the narrator has the most to say about because Turkey is the oldest and presumably in his employee the longest. In the morning Turkey is diligent and an earnest worker who is an exceptional copyist (producing flawless handwritten copies of legal documents). But after stepping out at noon to eat lunch (or dinner, as they called it), he invariably comes back flushed and in a nervous hyper-energetic condition, the result of which is ink blotches on important legal documents. The narrator values his service and is accommodating (overly accommodating) of Turkey's strange afternoon behavior, even offering to let Turkey work half a day, a suggestion Turkey rejects. The narrator comments, "...he would not go. So I made up my mind to let him stay."

Nippers, the second copyist, also of remarkable skill, is anxious and agitated in the morning (while Turkey is calm) and wages an on-going battle with his scrivener's desk in attempt to make it comfortable and conducive to productive work--a battle he never wins though he may try ever so hard. After lunch, Nippers is calm and productive--when he chooses to be--and battles less with his desk (while Turkey gears up for blotting all the documents in hyper-activity).

Ginger Nut, the office boy and law student, mostly cleans, ignores his desk and studies, and goes on errands to fetch cakes and apples for Turkey and Nippers. So he is a student who doesn't really want to be one.

Then enters Bartleby whom the narrator hopes will influence the other with his quiet industrious ways but whom we learn "would prefer not to." And the narrator doesn't know how to free himself of any of these individuals!

How do Nippers, Turkey, and Ginger Nut contribute to the themes in "Bartleby the Scrivener"?

Nippers, Turkey, and Ginger Nut are all employees of the lawyer narrator. Nippers and Turkey are scriveners, meaning they copy documents, while the twelve-year-old Ginger Nut is an office boy who runs errands.

We can see the class issues from the start, which ties into the theme of people alienated from their work, which is especially prevalent in Nippers and Turkey. Neither of these men is an ideal employee, which suggests that copying documents is the kind of boring, low-paid, dead-end work that attracts people who cannot get other jobs. Nippers, for example, is an older man, in his sixties, who drinks heavily at lunch and can't do much decent work in the afternoon: he is always getting blots on the page. Turkey is only twenty-five, but the lawyer fears he is ambitious: he is more interested in a legal career than in his scrivener job. He dresses well but is unpleasant; Nippers dresses very poorly and is rude in the afternoons. Ginger Nut is very bright, but he is a child, underpaid even given the time period, at a dollar a week for full-time work, and likely will quickly move on. We see in these three a portrait of the type of marginal employee that is all the lawyer can afford. All of these men are individuals, and the lawyer puts up with their irritating quirks because he doesn't have much choice: he has to take what he can get. However, both Nippers and Turkey, while giving signs of feeling imprisoned—from Nippers's drinking to the way Turkey sits at his desk—respond to peer pressure enough to do their jobs with some bit of competence: they at least pretend to follow the rules while displaying passive aggression in other ways.

However, their signs of dissatisfaction with their jobs and the evidences that the lawyer (or the industry) does not pay good wages help us to understand why Bartleby might enact their repressed desires and decide not to do the soul-deadening work. They also explain why the lawyer might put up with Bartleby's oddities: he knows Bartleby can do good work if he wants to, and the lawyer is used to tolerating difficult employees.