The Elevator By William Sleator Analysis

When I was younger, I was afraid of the dark, and one night when my grandmother made me go to sleep without my nightlight (which is so scary when you are a seven year old). Although I was forced into this situation, I conquered my fear, unlike Martin. In The Elevator by William Sleator, Martin and his father has just moved into a new apartment. Martin was so afraid of the elevator that he took the stairs which took an abundance of time, so the next day he took the elevator and encountered a fat lady. She was there every day, making Martin more uncomfortable each and everyday, and Martin tried to confront his father about this, but he just made Martin feel stupid. William Sleator shows us Martin’s lack of the ability to get over his fears by building suspense through Martin’s thoughts and actions which are all efforts to avoid those fears because Martin is claustrophobic to the elevator, paranoid of the fat lady, and intimidated by his father’s thoughts. …show more content…
A fears that a plethora of people have had is claustrophobia, which is Martin’s fear when he gets out of the tiny elevator. “He remained tense in the trembling little box, his eyes fixed on the numbers over the door that blinked on and off so haltingly, as if at any moment they might simply give up.”(Line 27) This shows us that when Martin is in the elevator, he thinks about what details are on the elevator and he fantasizes about all the scenarios that could happen to him. “Perhaps the problem was the door, which never stayed open quite long enough, and slammed shut with such ominous, clanging finality.” (Line 7) Martin is afraid of the door crushing him and that makes him uncomfortable, causing him to even like the presence of the elevator. The elevator is one of the three fears Martin has, the most interesting