Student Question
Why are Turkey, Nippers and Ginger Nut introduced before Bartleby?
Quick answer:
The author used the three characters to contrast Bartleby's character to show his uniqueness and it is also used to prove that Bartleby is not just an isolated case but a symbol of the general degeneration of society. The narrator concludes that Bartleby is "a mere machine."
It can be argued that Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut are introduced to readers before Bartleby for two key reasons.
First, the author wants to demonstrate why the narrator is initially drawn to Bartleby and believes he will have a soothing influence on Nippers and Turkey.
After a few words touching his qualifications, I engaged him, glad to have among my corps of copyists a man of so singularly sedate an aspect, which I thought might operate beneficially upon the flighty temper of Turkey, and the fiery one of Nippers.
Essentially, the contrast between the three employees and Bartleby could not be more stark. Turkey is known by his predilection for alcohol and has the tendency to turn in abysmal work in the afternoons, presumably after having imbibed large quantities of strong drink. Meanwhile, Nippers usually turns in excellent work but, due to his digestive problems, is prone to fits...
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of irritability and "nervous testiness." Ginger Nut, only twelve, functions as the office's delivery boy, the chief "cake and apple purveyor for Turkey and Nippers."
The narrator hires Bartleby because of his soothing demeanor, not realizing Bartleby's deceptively calm manner hides a surprising intransigence.
Second, by omitting the real names of the three characters, the author emphasizes how an increasingly mechanized and industrialized society dehumanizes the average worker. Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut are known only by their nicknames. Additionally, they have been reduced to caricatures of masculinity; one prone to drunken fits of emotion, another to obsessive-compulsive behavior, and the third to obsequious behavior before his superiors.
Why are Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut introduced before Bartleby in "Bartleby, the Scrivener"?
Turkey, Nipper, and Ginger Nut are introduced first to prepare us for why the lawyer is initially so delighted with Bartleby. We learn from the first three employees that it is apparently hard to come by a good scrivener, and we can imagine that the job is not well paid or particularly satisfying. The lawyer seems to have to take what he can get in help. He also comes across as very tolerant, which prepares us for his acceptance of Bartleby's quirks.
Turkey, who is about 60, works well in the morning but then drinks heavily during lunch and is not good for accurate work, or much work at all, in the afternoon. Nipper, aged 25, is ambitious, so he steps outside of the boundaries of his job and does things like draw up legal documents, which is uncalled for. He also can be irritable. Ginger Nut is irritable as well and engages in noisy activities that disturb the whole office such as:
stooping over his table, spread[ing] his arms wide apart, seiz[ing] the whole desk, . . . with a grim, grinding motion on the floor, as if the table were a perverse voluntary agent, intent on thwarting and vexing him . . .
Bartleby, in contrast, doesn't drink, isn't irritable, and doesn't make loud noises. He doesn't make errors, and he doesn't overstep his bounds—at least, not at first. Initially, he is the ideal scrivener.
The narrator of “Bartleby the Shrivener” is privileged. He is someone whom the Wall Street establishment of the day rewards generously for relatively little personal effort. In that sense, he is one of the chosen. Economics dictate that the smooth operation of a firm requires a hierarchy, with the far greater share of the spoils amassed at the top, even if the employer is dependent on his necessary servitors to maintain that enrichment.
For all their diverse quirks—their strengths and weaknesses—the three subordinates, Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut, demonstrate certain attributes of individuals who’ve willingly bent themselves to meet their organizational demands. Actually, the ensemble’s odder personality traits and moods are, in part, their process, as they undertake their tasks at hand and endeavor to get through the day.
This is in contrast to Bartleby’s recalcitrance, which becomes so severe that he causes his employer to question his own hold on sanity.
In "Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street," Melville chooses his order of character introduction, introducing the narrator's qualities, then the clerks' descriptions, and finally Bartleby, in order to illustrate what kind of man the lawyer is. The entire story depends upon the lawyer's reactions and responses to Bartleby and upon the reader accepting the lawyer's reactions, responses, and actions as wholly sincere and in keeping with his character.
Before introducing the conflict of the story, in the person of Bartleby, Melville establishes firmly that the lawyer is efficient, successful, respected among his professional peers and among a renowned clientele. Melville also establishes firmly that the lawyer is a man who not only wants a contention free life for himself but is willing to permit others the same privilege of a similarly contention free life, thus he observes and adjusts to his clerks peculiarities but never comments or tries to regulate said peculiarities. This is critical once Bartleby and his extraordinary peculiarities are introduced into the story.