Read the following extract from William Sleater's short story, 'The Elevator' and answer the questions that follow: Martin felt nervous when he got back to the building after school. But why should he be afraid of an old lady? He felt ashamed of himself. He pressed the button and stepped into the elevator, hoping that it would not stop, but it stopped on the third floor. Martin watched the door slide open …
What was Martin’s father’s opinion of him? What does this reveal to us about his father’s character?
Topic: Martin's father
Answer
His father thought him a coward and a weakling. He dismissed Martin’s fear of the elevator as nonsense, mocked him for using the stairs, told him to grow up and be a man, and made it clear he considered his son unmanly and a disappointment.
This reveals a father who is insensitive, unsympathetic and emotionally absent. He is more concerned with his idea of manliness than with his son’s distress, and he prefers his television to listening. His contempt is not harmless: it is what shames Martin into using the elevator, so the father contributes directly to what happens to his son.
This is a 4-mark question — split it 2 + 2 and support each half with evidence from the text. The strongest answers add the consequence in a final line: the father’s failure of sympathy is a cause of the ending, which makes him more than a background figure. Character questions always reward linking a trait to its effect on the plot.