Compare and Contrast

The plot and characters in the two short stories "Bartleby, the Scrivener" and  "The Birthmark" are very similar, yet have their differences.  As each stories progresses the characters try and change another character to fit what they want.  We also have motivated characters in both stories.  Each character has a point to contribute to the story, there were no characters that were just thrown into the stories that you sit and think, why is this character in the story.  While "Bartleby, the Scrivener" uses the plot structure of exposition, and "The Birthmark" uses chronological, the stories are set up very similar.  They both are set up to tell you the things that happened in order instead of flashing back to what has happened in the past.  One difference in the plot is that I believe "Bartleby, the Scrivener" could have been written in another plot structure, but "The Birthmark" could not have without ruining the story.  Some differences in the characters between the two stories are that the characters in "Bartleby, the Scrivener" are plausible, the stuff the characters did could have actually happened, while the characters in "The Birthmark" were not very plausible.  Another thing that "Bartleby, the Scrivener" had that "The Birthmark" did not was that it had a foil character.

By comparing the two stories we can learn how different plot structures work with stories and why they work.  The two stories would have been very different if the authors would have choosen different structures.  A theme we can learn from comparing these two stories is that you should not judge people.  "Bartleby, the Scrivener" teaches us not to judge people before we know them and "The Birthmark" teaches us not to judge people for their outside appearance.  By comparing these two stories we can learn about different characters, plot structures, and themes.  Comparing stories helps you to understand why something works for one story, but not for another.