The Impact of Materialism on Individual Choice

The Influence of Materialism on Individual Choices

The booming Wall Street in the United States is depicted by Melville to have influenced the individual choices to confirm towards materialistic pursuits which in turn created internal pressures among the various characters as conflicts characterized everyone’s decision-making processes. Assessing the aspect of choices in the case of Nippers, the narrator of the literary work asserts that ‘In Short, the truth of the matter was Nippers knew not what he wanted’ (Melville, 9). Here, Nippers is portrayed as a discontented individual with the given behavioral state being the result of undefined and uncertain ambitions as far as material achievements are concerned. The author creates a scenario where the audience of the work is compelled to question the aspects of independent thinking and the individual decision-making capacities. The indecision witnessed in Nippers allows for the evaluation of the external factors which govern individual choices. The actions of the narrator which included the choice to leave Bartleby in the office at Wall Street are deemed to have caused the death of Scrivener and hence, the conflict between humanness and materialism as a result of the booming Wall Street in the United States is evidenced. In assessing choice as far as Bartleby’s resistance to capitalist and corporatist ideologies is concerned, the given character’s decisions are portrayed as unchangeable as the narrator indicates that ‘had there been anything ordinarily human about him, doubtless I should have violently dismissed him from the premises’ (Melville, 22). Bartleby is depicted to be striving not to conform to the pressures to conform to the corporatist and capitalist ideologies that resulted from Wall Street’s materialistic nature. Here, individual decisions are inclined towards attaining gains from the booming investment opportunities which in turn tend to compromise the free will that is would be imminent in a conventional society.

Rules and Order

It is imminent that materialistic ways are characterized by the adherence to stipulated rules and order which govern the conduct of the stakeholders involved in the business. In the book by Melville, it is evident that the rules and order evident in the book communicate on the manner in which the United States society changed towards materialistic ways amidst the booming of Wall Street. In asserting the relevance of rules and order, the narrator indicates that ‘The late John Jacob Astor, a personage little given to poetic enthusiasm, had no hesitation in pronouncing my first grand point to be prudence, my next, method’ (Melville, 2). The narrator is portrayed as a steadfast observer of order and rules which are deemed as the foundational aspect of materialism. Also, the narrator in the literary work indicates that ‘After a few words touching qualifications I engaged him, glad to have among my corps of copyists a man of so singularly sedate an aspect’ (Melville, 15) while referring to Bartleby’s abilities to uphold order and rules. The preference for order and law by the narrator who operates in the booming Wall Street reflects the modification of the United States society towards a materialistic state defined by rules and order. It is important to note that corporatist and capitalist ideologies are marked by continuous change as entities strive to cope with the dynamic nature of the business environment. However, in the case of Bartleby, the given character is portrayed as static in decision making which indicate the aspects of resistance to the given ideologies.

Morality and Ethics

Also, the assessment of the materialistic inclination of the United States society as a result of the booming Wall Street is depicted in the moral and ethical characters of the characters in the literary work. Here, the apparent question revolves on the type of choices that individuals are able to make while furthering the responsibilities to other individuals and within the working context. The narrator indicates that ‘I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best’ (Melville, 1). In this case, the morality of the given character is deemed as questionable in that, the conventional perceptions of a given society do not perceive ‘easy’ things as desired or morally accepted. However, it is apparent that the provisions of the Wall Street and the distinct objective of attaining material gains compel individuals to seek the easiest ways of attaining the given goal. Also, in reference to Nippers, the narrator states that ‘I always deemed him the victim of two evil powers – ambition and indigestion’ (Melville, 9). In this case, it is imminent that materialistic pursuits are guided by an individual ambition which could lead to the disregard for personal virtues such as patience and persistence. Ambition is portrayed as pivotal in corporatist and capitalist ideologies and while Bartleby is depicted as patient and ‘straight-forward’, the other characters in the text reflect on the changing moral standards of the United States people in accordance with materialistic ideologies as the Wall Street boom.

Work Cited

Melville, Herman. Bartleby the Scrivener. La Vergne: Dreamscape Media, 2017