The narrator’s paralysis becomes total when Bartleby refuses to open his own door

Evidence

For an instant I stood like the man who, pipe in mouth, was killed one cloudless afternoon long ago in Virginia, by a summer lightning; at his own warm window he was killed, and remained leaning out there upon the dreamy afternoon, till some one touched him, when he fell. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 259

Categorization

Category: Craft and Method

• XREF: Supports the reader’s project of method — how Odell uses literary close reading to make a philosophical point concrete.