William Sleator Martin The Elevator Essay

When I was little my phobia was clowns.Every Time I saw a clown I would freak out. Once when i went trick or treating with my cousins, then out of nowhere a clown came out with a chainsaw it started chasing us. Unfortunately I was never able to overcome my fear of clowns.
In “The Elevator” by William Sleator Martin has just moved to a apartment with his dad. Martin lives in the 17th floor which means he has to take the elevator which he is scared of. He also comes across a fat lady that creeps him out. William Sleator shows us Martin’s lack of ability to get over his fears by building suspense through Martin’s thoughts and actions which are all efforts to avoid these fears. He is severely claustrophobic inside the elevator,extremely paranoid

This means he is claustrophobic or the elevator that he is scared to get on. “Perhaps its baleful atmosphere was due to the light from the single fluorescent ceiling strip,bleak and dim on the dirty brown walls”(lines 5-7). The atmosphere of the elevator is frightful that he thinks something may happen when he is in the elevator that causes him to be scared. To add up of his fear of the elevator he is scared of the fat lady that takes the elevator with him.”He knew she had gotten on at fourteen this morning so why was she on three, going up to eighteen now? The only floor he ever went to were seventeen and one.What was she doing?Had she been waiting for him? Was she riding with him on purpose?”.(line 95-99) Martin gets more freaked out by the fat lady when he saw that the fat lady got on the third floor when the day before he clearly saw her get on floor fourteen. Martin started questioning himself “was she waiting for me?” which cause him to freak out.”She was expecting him.She knew he lived on seventeen.He stood there unable to move,and then backed away.And as he did so, her expression changed she smiled as the

He feels that his dad is disappointed in him that he tries to not be a coward to not let his dad down.”Not only are you skinny and weak and bad at sports, his expression seemed to say,but you’re also a coward”.(line 22-23) Martins dad thinks low of his son he thinks his son is a coward and weak.But martin does not want to disappoint his dad so he tries to act like the elevator and the elevator does not scare him.”When are you going to grow up and act like a man?Are you going to be timid all your life?”.(line 136-137) Martin tries to tell his dad about what has been bothering these past days. Yet his dad just thinks he is over exaggerating and does not pay attention to