Portrayal Of American Life
Essay by 24 • January 3, 2011 • 300 Words (2 Pages) • 1,410 Views
Portrayal of American Life
Over time American life has proved to have changed quite rapidly. Before the
American Revolution people had no choice but to use handmade tools and goods in order
to move on. As America became more industrialized, availability of machinery helped to
ease the work load. Even though it seems that over time American life has had a drastic
change, we can still see how American life has been portrayed hopeless by writers that
lived it. Works such as Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the scrivener” and Mark Twain’s
“The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” show what American life was like in
early developing America.
The emptiness of modern business life is an important theme. Taking place on
Wall Street, “Bartleby the Scrivener” emphasizes how dull and dreary American life
really is. The description of the office shows the inanimate features of the lawyer’s
office: “In that direction my windows commanded an unobstructed view of a lofty brick
wall, black by age and everlasting shade.” The narrator also mentions that there are no
people outside at night, showing how isolated the work environment is. Just by looking
into
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