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Herman Melville uses symbolism to connect his short story, "Bartleby," to his own life. Some examples of symbolism that act as parables of Melville's life as a writer are Bartleby, his refusal to copy letters, and the dead letter that Bartleby used to work with. Bartleby used to work very diligently, day and night, and was praised for his efficiency. He then stopped working because he "preferred not to." He preferred to stare out the …

…he felt more and more discouraged, and headed towards short stories, a different form of writing from which he had been doing. Bartleby, also depressed by the dead letters, headed towards the job of copying letters and such, but he stopped because he preferred not to copy these letters but to return to his old job just as how Melville, though his shunned books were a failure, he preferred to write these types of books.