Response to Bartleby # 18

In "Bartleby" the minor characters Turkey, Nippers, and Gingernut do not advance the plot in any way, but instead are there to serve as foils through which the reader can understand more about Bartleby. The scriveners working for the narrator do their work, but each with some sort of distinctive undermining quality that impedes the general progress of the lawfirm. Turkey does great work in the mornings, but in the afternoons he can't get anything done correctly because he drinks too much at lunchtime. Nippers does his work diligently and with great "ambition" (7), but he often curses and throws fits from mistakes made because of his desk that he despises and can never get comfortable with. Turkey reflects Bartleby in that they both do their work well some of the time, but other times they don't do certain work, whether by Bartleby's volition or drunkenness that botches whatever Turkey does. Nippers, like Bartleby, "If he wanted anything, it was to be rid of a scrivener's table altogether" (6). Ginger Nut on the other hand, the narrator's young assistant, doesn't do anything incorrectly but was sent to the lawfirm for a home-like place after being orphaned, much like what Bartleby is doing by staying in the law firm. Ginger Nut, also a lot like Bartleby, eats mostly only nuts, and it so happens that the only thing Bartleby eats is the eponymous nut for which the young Ginger Nut is named.