Question

I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best. —Herman Melville, "Bartleby the Scrivener" In the bolded section, what is the benefit of using "from his youth upward" rather than "from an early age" or "always"? It suggests a very old and feeble narrator without any true sense of right or wrong. It suggests an attitude of understandable and debilitating fear in the narrator. It suggests the narrator sees himself as someone who has grown more successful over time. It suggests the narrator has a strong sense of loss after the things he has described in the passage.

Answer 1

The answer to the question above would be the third option: It suggests the narrator sees himself as someone who has grown more successful over time. As we analyze this part, the author has been emphasizing himself as someone who had lesser experiences in life or in other words, he was "young" and after gaining more of these, he was growing "upwards" for being experienced in life.This is the benefit of using "from his youth upward".