Claustrophobia In The Educator By William Sleator

When I was in elementary school I was terrified of needles. Ever since I got over my fear of them, I think back and have no idea why I was so scared of them. Needles are just small thin pointy objects that can barely do any harm to you. In the story, The Elevator, by William Sleator, a 12 year old boy named Martin is trying to deal with his egregious fear. I can understand that he has claustrophobia, because as far as I know claustrophobia is a common fear. However his paranoia and intimidation are pathetic. Since Martin has dealt with all of his fears every single day he is probably scarred at this point in his life.

Without any doubt, Martin’s biggest fear is the fat lady. “ It wasn’t possible. It was like a nightmare. But there she was massively real, “going up!” he said his voice a humiliating squeak.”(line 90) This shows this shows that Martin is definitely sacred of the fat lady since whenever he saw his voice started to squeak. “ He felt her eyes on him as he stared at the numbers slowly blinking on and off-slower than usual, it seemed to him”. (line 102) This again explains, like the other quote, that martin knows that she is not like other people, because everyone tries to avoid eye contact and it makes him feel desperate.
“After that, Martin forced himself to take the elevator.” (line 23) Because Martin despises being judged being judged by his dad, he forces to do things that terrify him. “He managed not to cry until he got up to his room- but his father probably knew he was crying.He slept very little.” (line 138) Like before, Martin hates being judged by his father and when he is he breaks