Symbols in Melville's "Bartleby, The Scrivener"

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Art/Revolution W2
The three symbols that Herman Melville uses in his seminal short story, “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” are dead letters, walls, and the office. Each of these symbols has been used in the story to portray deeper meaning to help convey the author’s message to the reader and to explain the main themes.
Dead letters in the story have been used to symbolize disconnection or disjointed communication. Towards the end of the story, it is revealed that Bartleby used to work at the Dead Letters Office. Dead letters are those that cannot be delivered to their intended recipients for one reason or the other. Therefore, they imply failed communication since there is no feedback from to recipient. The narrator states that “Dead letters! does it not sound like dead men (Jaffé 48)?” to demonstrate that the dead letters c...