"Bartleby, the Scrivener" Part 2

In my last post I questioned the relevance of Nippers and Turkey in this story. Nippers suffers from chronic indigestion and Turkey is a drunk. Nippers is irritable in the morning and Turkey is drunk in the afternoon. Melville presents balance in our narrator's environment, albeit a tempermental one. Turkey works in the morning and Nippers works in the afternoons. Ginger Nut is the office boy who is named after the cakes he brings to the office. These characters highlight the narrator's desire to have a balance in his life no matter the cost. He is willing to endure the irritability and drunkness of his employees as long as it does not occur at the same time and the work is being accomplished. We further learn the reason of our narrator's desire to "play it safe", he lost a very prestigious position as Master of Chancery because of an severe economic downturn. He conformed to the economic changes of the time by living only for employment and obtaining finacial security. The emptiness and isolation of modern business is an important them in this story which Melville metaphorically describes through the office: "At one end they looked upon the white interior wall of the of the spacious skylight shaft," "the light pentrated into the building, yet it never illumnated the residents." And as stated in my prior blog, our narrator's view is a brick wall. The narrator willingly allows himselft to be walled in from life so he can feel safe. His employs are predictable and reliable in work and demeanor. This conformity and easy way of life is shttered when he hires Bartleby.
One idea Emerson (a contemporary of Melville) imparts to his readers in "Self Reliance" is to not live as others would ditate, nor to live for materialism, praise or status, as this would cause a loss of self. We can see this idea as we see the effect of Bartleby on our narrator.