Bartleby Essay Discuss the conflict of the individuals' need to communicate his individual thoughts and feelings versus the desire of society's institutions, for conformity in Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener" and Updike's "A & P." In Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener" and John Updike's "A & P," the conflict of the individual thoughts and feelings versus the desire of society's institutions for conformity occurs with the characters who were different. Initially, a scrivener is someone who copies things for a living. The title "Bartleby, the Scrivener" describes Bartleby the complete opposite of wh