Point-by-Point Comparison

One difference between the boss in A & P and the boss in Bartleby is the fact that one boss is in control and another is out of control. The boss in A & P is in control of his store. He will not let the customers of his store dress in skimpy outfits. This is evidenced when he says “We want you decently dressed when you come in here.” The boss in Bartleby, on the other hand, has almost no control over Bartleby. Bartleby will not do anything the boss asks because he “would prefer not to,” but the boss lets this happen for days. Based on this evidence, I think these bosses are almost polar opposites in the way they run their business. In A & P, we are supposed to understand that the employees are young and not very mature from their interactions. We get this first when Sammy is thinking to himself about women: “Do you really think it’s a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar?” The immaturity is also shown in the dialogue between Sammy and Stokesie when Stokesie says “Oh Daddy, I feel so faint.” When he is talking about the girls in the store, to which Sammy replies “Darling, hold me tight.” These two are judging customers by what they are wearing, which shows their immaturity. What we are supposed to gather from the interactions between the employees in Bartleby’s office is that none of the co-workers approve of Bartleby. When the boss asks the employees what they think of Bartleby preferring not to work, Nippers thinks they should kick him out of the office, and Ginger Nut thinks he is “luny.” However, in both of these stories, there is no effect. They still get their work done in A & P, and the boss is too passive to do anything about Bartleby in that story. I think that in both of these stories, the value of their job is quite different. The two boys in A & P hardly value their jobs at all. It seems like they are just in it for the money or because their parents made them get a job. When Sammy quits, he is more afraid of his parent’s wrath rather than the fact that he does not have a job anymore. In Bartleby, on the other hand, I believe that a job is of great value to Bartleby. Although he “prefers not to” do any work, this job is all that he has other than his savings that he keeps folded up in a cloth.