an allegorical level represents Melville, his life, and what he wished his reading audience would understand about him. This is probably what he wanted, but readers, initially, see a melancholy story about the condition of humanity. Whether or not Melville is an anti-transcendentalist is a question to be pondered over. As such he is as focused on leaving an impression on his readers as any other writer on the writing block. Therefore, I believe that Melville was transcendental in many ways. He was a writer who portrayed his own persona through his writings and thus he was a writer who had the power to be able to express his own emotions and experiences through his characters. This he has accomplished by writing stories, which had a depth, an essence of their own. Melville was not o much concerned with the commercial success of his works, but that was still a very high contributing factor to the motivation behind his writings. Although he mainly drew on his personal experiences while formulating the stories that he wrote, he greatly embellished them through his imagination and creativity to create literary masterpieces out of them, which are appreciated greatly today. Being a success meant a great deal to Melville and he was always aware of the fact that his books were not very popular during his lifetime. In fact Bartleby the Scrivener relates to this very fact through its portrayal of a writer, and it is greatly reflective of Melville's own private situation.He probably wished that his writing would be more popular among the readers, although he professed his own demise with Bartleby's atrophy. The expression of accepted failure was prevalent in Scrivener. Yet this did not make Melville any less desirous of fame and popularity. He still strove to deliver excellence in his works in any way possible. Every writer in history has had to find a place for himself in the mind of his readers before reaching a level of maturity and respect in t...
