Name of the prose : The Elevator by William Sleator
Introduction to the author :
William Warner Sleator III (February 13, 1945 – August 3, 2011) known as William Sleator,
was an American science fiction author who wrote primarily young adult novels but also
wrote for younger readers. His books typically deal with adolescents coming across a
peculiar phenomenon related to an element of theoretical science, then trying to deal with
the situation. The theme of family relationships, especially between siblings, is frequently
intertwined with the science fiction [Link], the oldest of four siblings, was born in
Havre de Grace, Maryland, to William Warner Sleator, Jr., a professor of physiology and
biophysics, and Esther Kaplan Sleator, a pediatrician who did pioneering research on
attention deficit disorder (ADD).He attended University City High School, where he was
known as a composer who wrote scores for school plays and the orchestraHis first
published book was a children’s story called The Angry Moon, released in 1970. It won a
Caldecott Honor [Link]’s writing style has been described as clean and simple.
His characters are reluctant teenage heroes, and Sleator’s younger siblings and friends
have often found themselves being written into his [Link]’s work often includes a
morbid or negative fixation on the past or includes visions of dystopian[3] or alternate
worlds (future or otherwise) in which something has gone wrong
Works:
• The Angry Moon (1970)
• Blackbriar (1972)
• Run (1973)
• House of Stairs (1974)
• Among the Dolls (1975)
• Into the Dream (1979)
• Once, Said Darlene (1979)
• The Green Futures of Tycho (1981)
• That's Silly (1981)
• Fingers (1983)
• Interstellar Pig (1984)
• Singularity (1985)
Synopsis of the story :
The story starts by describing an old building with an elevator. The elevator of this
building was quite small and could only hold three people at maximum. Martin had
never been a fan of elevators and this one was especially old. It had little lighting and
dirty walls and the door always shut with a lot of noise. Martin felt suffocated even if
there were only two people in it.
He had tried the stairs but they were no good because the light was broken and no
window was to be found. Once he had climbed it to the seventeenth floor and was
gasping terribly. His father asked him the reason for it, questioning why he had not used
the elevator instead. When Martin looked at his father’s face it seemed to be saying that
he was a coward not even able to play sports properly. Martin was scared to see his
father’s expression and decided to always use the elevator from that day. He convinced
himself he would get used to it, just like the bullying at school.
However he never really got used to it, he was always afraid the elevator would stop and
he would be trapped in it for hours. He did not even like it when the other passengers
were there either. One day as Martin was going down the elevator for school, the
elevator stopped at floor fourteen. A fat lady with an oversized hat got on the elevator.
Instead of turning back around to face the elevator doors, she just kept looking at
Martin. Martin was getting really scared by her and looked at the lady, and yes the
woman was still staring at him. Martin could not understand why she kept looking at
him and when the elevator stopped at the first floor he wanted to bolt out of there as
soon as possible. As there was no space inside he had to wait for her to come into the
lobby, and then he ran away from there as fast as he could. He thought about the
incident all day but could not make any sense of it. When he returned to the building
after school he was very nervous. He tried to be brave by convincing himself that there
was nothing to be afraid of an old lady. He got on the elevator and when the elevator
stopped at the third he was surprised to see the old lady getting on it. Martin couldn’t
believe his eyes but he said meekly that he was going up. The woman nodded and
pressed the eighteenth floor. Martin was curious about this as she had previously
stepped on the elevator from the third floor. When the elevator stopped at Martin’s
floor, he quickly squeezed past the woman thinking regrettably that now she knew
where he lived.
Later in the evening, Martin asked his father if he had seen a strange lady in the
elevator. His father replied to him vaguely. When Martin insisted about the women
being there his father accused him of being afraid. Martin could see his father’s disdain
clearly and waited until he got to his room to cry. The next day when the elevator doors
opened Martin was shocked to see the old lady already in the elevator. Seeing her
Martin was so spooked that he decided to use the stairs. As he started climbing down
the stairs, he was so nervous that he fell and broke his leg. Martin’s father drove him to
the hospital and from his silence Martin could tell that he was very angry.
On the way back from the hospital Martin used was not scared because his father was
with him in the elevator. Suddenly Martins’ father announced that he had to meet Mrs.
Ullman and stepped off the elevator at floor number nine. Martin pleaded with his
father to come along but his father only mocked him as the doors slammed shut. As the
elevator went up it stopped at floor ten where the old lady was waiting for Martin. He
tried to run past her but could not due to his injury and watched in horror as the woman
got in and pressed the stop button on the elevator
Critical appreciation :
The story is written from a limited third-person point of view as it describes the event
regarding Martin and the elevator. Martin is a meek boy who gets bullied at school and
is afraid of many things which include the elevator. As the story progresses one does
not find any particular instance where the story presents any fantastical elements.
However, the story does possess surreal elements as well as horror ones which make the
story different from an ordinary story about an elevator.
The end of the story is particularly interesting as it converts a normal situation into a
Kafkaesque one. The number of floors from which the old lady gets on and off is also
very peculiar. The elevator somehow becomes an object of terror for the boy who was
already weary of cramped spaces. And further into the story, we come to realize that all
of this perhaps was a warning for Martin to steer clear of the elevator who does not do
so because of his fear of his father. In a way, Martin is trapped between two places,
either he uses the elevator every day to prove his father wrong or he chooses to use the
stairs to show both his father and the women that he is afraid. The woman is also a very
suspicious person with a piggy face and blue eyes she is always staring at Martin as if
she wants something from him. And for the insecure Martin, her sly smile is enough to
scare him into using the stairs. However, even when Martin chooses to run away from
his lack of bravery he is still not able to escape it as the woman traps him in the elevator
eventually. Here the situation turns a bit horrific as the woman traps Martin in the
elevator without giving any explanation. Furthermore, Sleator has used an open ending
for this story. Perhaps this is his way of showing that the story would continue onward
as the reader imagines what would happen next when the woman pushes the Stop
button in the elevator.
Name of the poem : Haunted Houses
Introduction to the poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American
poet and educator. His original works include the poems “Paul Revere’s Ride”, “The Song
of Hiawatha”, and “Evangeline”. He was the first American to completely translate Dante
Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and was one of the fireside poets from New England.
Longfellow was born in Portland, District of Maine, Massachusetts (now Portland,
Maine). He graduated from Bowdoin College and became a professor there and, later,
at Harvard College after studying in Europe. His first major poetry collections
were Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841). He retired from
teaching in 1854 to focus on his [Link] first wife, Mary Potter, died in 1835 after a
miscarriage. His second wife, Frances Appleton, died in 1861 after sustaining burns when
her dress caught fire. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing poetry for a time
and focused on translating works from foreign languages. .Longfellow wrote many lyric
poems known for their musicality and often presenting stories of mythology and legend.
He became the most popular American poet of his day and had success overseas. He
has been criticized for imitating European styles and writing poetry that was too
sentimental. Longfellow often used didacticism in his poetry, but he focused on it less in
his later years. Much of his poetry imparts cultural and moral values, particularly focused
on life being more than material pursuits.[101] He often used allegory in his
[Link]’s early collections Voices of the Night and Ballads and Other Poems
made him instantly popular. The New-Yorker called him “one of the very few in our time
who has successfully aimed in putting poetry to its best and sweetest uses”
Works:
Outre-Mer: A Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea (Travelogue) (1835)
Hyperion, a Romance (1839)
The Spanish Student. A Play in Three Acts (1843)[57]
Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (epic poem) (1847)
Kavanagh (1849)
The Golden Legend (poem) (1851)
The Song of Hiawatha (epic poem) (1855)
The Legend of Rabbi Ben Levi (1863)[150]
The New England Tragedies (1868)
The Divine Tragedy (1871)
Synopsis of the poem
H.W. Longfellow’s poem “Haunted Houses” delves into the nature of memory and the
passage of time. The poem paints a vivid picture of a deserted house, once vibrant and
full of life, now abandoned and haunted by the memories of its past inhabitants.
Longfellow uses rich imagery and evocative language to describe the house as a symbol
of bygone days, where laughter, joy, and love once resided.
The poem opens with a description of the house, its windows boarded up and its rooms
empty, creating an eerie and desolate atmosphere. Longfellow personifies the house,
attributing it with a sense of loneliness and sorrow as it stands silent and neglected. He
uses the metaphor of the house as a “ghost” to emphasize its haunting bygone
existence.
Longfellow then takes the reader on a journey through the house’s memories, invoking
images of the past inhabitants — families, children, and lovers — who once inhabited its
walls. He reminisces about the sounds of music and laughter that once filled the rooms,
contrasting sharply with the present silence. The poet laments the passage of time,
reflecting on how quickly moments and lives fade away, leaving behind only echoes and
memories.
The poem’s central theme revolves around the transient nature of life and the inevitable
march of time. Longfellow reflects on the fleeting nature of human existence,
highlighting how even the most vibrant and lively places eventually succumb to
abandonment and decay.
Moreover, the poem invites contemplation on the significance of memories and the
emotional resonance of places tied to our past. Longfellow suggests that while physical
structures may deteriorate, the memories embedded within them persist, haunting the
empty spaces and preserving the essence of what once was.
In conclusion, “Haunted Houses” is a poignant exploration of nostalgia, time’s relentless
passage, and the enduring power of memories. Through vivid imagery and reflective
verses, Longfellow crafts a hauntingly beautiful portrayal of a forsaken house, urging
readers to ponder the transient nature of life and the emotional weight of the past.”
Critical appreciation of the poem
Longfellow begins his poem with a straightforward but surprising statement: “All houses
wherein men have lived and died/ Are haunted houses.” The speaker dispels the typical
ghostly prerequisite of suffering, unfinished business, or malicious intent; every soul that
departed this earth, he proposes, lingers in his/her former dwelling. And Longfellow’s
ghosts are very different from the “ghoulies and ghosties” of popular imagination; they
are neither unhappy nor fearsome, and they neither moan nor clank. These are
domesticated ghosts, busy with errands, moving purposefully around the house as they
did in life. The speaker describes them as “harmless,” “inoffensive,” and welcome to join
him at table.
In the next stanza, we learn that only the speaker can see and hear these phantoms—
what “has been”—which makes us question whether they exist only in his memory. Yet
now, having lulled us into a feeling of rational safety, he at last ushers in the notion of
mysticism and otherworldliness that the earlier stanzas’ matter of fact tone held at bay.
Here he admits his belief in the supernatural with “the spirit world around this world of
sense / Floats like an atmosphere.” Note that the poet has reversed clauses in this
statement in order to maintain his rhyme scheme; in free verse, it would read “the spirit
world floats like an atmosphere / around this world of sense.” All our daily activities on
the material plane occur within, or beside, a medium of departed souls. This mood of
mystery and spirituality is confirmed in the final two stanzas, which create an ingenious
simile in the form “as x, so y.” The ethereal image of moonlight floating across the ocean
waves is compared to a glorious “bridge of light” that descends “from the world of
spirits” to earth. Our thoughts, memories, and aspirations can travel across the
“trembling planks” of this bridge to connect with the spirits of loved ones who have
gone before, and to rise above “the dark abyss” of the materialistic world in which we
live. In this memorable image, Longfellow deftly captures the way that moonlight “sways
and bends” on the water to create the “unsteady floor” of this bridge that only spirits,
not bodies, can cross.
