Fear is a distressing emotion aroused by the impending danger, whether the threat is real or imaginary. In “The elevator”, William Sleator’s main character martin, who is fearful of elevators, must ride in one to reach or leave his apartment. One day an old fat lady enters the elevator with martin. She begins to stare at him, and it terrifies martin. The author creates suspense when martin’s fear of elevators escalates because of his encounters with a mysterious obese women, who intimidates him every time he rides the elevator. The elevator is the root of martin’s fear. Sleator implies this by writing “of course he always felt uncomfortable in the elevators, afraid that they would fall, but this one was especially unpleasant.” By stating this, it approves that Martin already had a mild phobia of elevators and the fact of his matter is that this particular elevator appeared to be very worn out and only big enough to hold three people. Maybe the problem of this particular elevator “ was the door, which never stayed open quite long enough, and slammed shut with such ominous, clanging finally” or maybe it was “The way the mechanism shuddered in a …show more content…
He doesn’t quite know if she’s real or he imagines her. Maybe what frightens martin is the way she dresses in such a mysterious way “ she wore a thread barge green coat that ballooned around her, her ankles bulged above dirty sneakers.” Or perhaps the way she “waddles in the elevator martin was sure he felt it sink under weight.” Martin was now not only scared of the elevator but now the fat lady too. Martin was really scared of “Her features [which] seemed very small, smashed together by the loose fleshy mounds of her cheeks. She had no chin, only a great swollen mass of neck.” These features only frighten martin more. Martin was already terrified by the elevators he even had a mild phobia this elevator and old fat lady only terrified him