The Office in "Bartleby"
Bartleby lives in his office. This isn't a metaphor or an exaggeration; the lawyer who owns the offices discovers that Bartleby literally sleeps, eats, and spends all his time in the office. When t...
Don Aranda's Skeleton
Don Aranda, the owner of the slaves in "Benito Cereno", is put to death by Babo and then his skeleton is hung from the front of the ship and the words "Follow your leader" chalked by it. Yeah, that...
The Lightning-Rod
The lightning rod in "The Lightning-rod Man" is basically a symbol of human fear. The lightning-rod salesman holds up his rod and says, hey, I can control the wrath of the gods, be afraid. And the...
The Turtles
In "The Encantadas", Melville points out that there are two sides to a Galapagos tortoise. The top is "dark and melancholy", but when you turn it over its breast-plate has a "faint yellowish or gol...
The Flaw in the Bell
The bell in "The Bell Tower" is flawed when Bannadonna kills one of the workmen forging it. Bannadonna kills the poor guy with a ladle; the bit of the ladle breaks off, gets into the forge, and cre...