The Elevator By William Sleator Analysis

After reading the first paragraph of “The Elevator” written by William Sleator it was very obvious that Martin is a very fragile person emotionally and physically. In the story the author makes this obvious when Martin describes his father’s expression as “not only are you skinny and weak and bad at sports, but you're also a coward” this quote shows that when Martin looks at his father all he sees is disappointment and distaste (21-25). Another example is when he tries to avoid the elevator and climbs the stairs and the result is “He tried the stairs, but they were almost as bad. By the time he reached the seventeenth floor he was wheezing and gasping” (15-19). This quote explains that even the stairs were too much for Martin to handle even

if they didn’t scare him as badly as the stairs. Both quotes prove that Martin has a low self-esteem and thinks badly of himself and that he is physically weak as well as mentally. One of the reasons martin is so mentally weak is because his father bashes him for being so afraid instead of comforting and helping him which could have made Martin an already weak kid even more fragile. If the quotes before didn’t prove my point the line “If he was afraid of her, then he was worse than all the names they called him at school” (83-84) does. The whole quote means that Martin is bullied at his school for being weak and fragile and believes that if he doesn’t face the elevator and the fat lady then all the names they call him are true. The entire time while reading the story the author throws out hints giving the reader more and more examples of Martins vulnerability and weakness to prove how fragile he is.