Ariana Allison - Response 4

I don't know whether Robert Coover has disgusted or just confused me in The Babysitter. The story goes from watching television to touching kids in the bathtub. It seems to fit typical stereotypes of certain age groups: young children running a muck and never listening, teenage kids thinking about nothing but sex, women obsessed with youth, and old men drooling over young "meat." I believe the extremes to which this story goes to (and all of Coover's other stories) is just a method used to show us the small things about human nature. It's almost as if he's writing Fairy-tale satire. To show us how a young boy's mind revolves around sex, he takes sex to the extreme-- rape. This story almost completely revolves around sex. The little boy conveys sexual thinking while he peeps at the babysitter through the keyhole. The teenage boys have nothing BUT sex on their minds. The father thinks about nothing but having sex and the mom does her swinger thing, which clearly involves SEX. Is Coover trying to get a point across to us? Humans are obsessed with sex. No longer is it used for just reproduction, it's lost its importance, it's just another game. Age plays an important role in this story. We have characters from each age group: kids, teenagers, and adults. They are even put in the same situations with different responses. At one part, Jimmy drops the soap in the tub. He tells his babysitter only for her to bluntly reply with, "find it." However, when Harry, the father, drops his slippery bar of soap, the babysitter gladly searches around the tub for it. Obviously there is something to be said about sex and appropriate age groups. It is (somewhat) "okay" for a teenage girl and a grown man to have sexual relations. It is NOT okay for a teenage girl and a little boy to do the same.

The Elevator also has sexual references, but then again, when do you read Robert Coover and not come across sex? Martin constantly fantasizes about having a little rendezvous with the elevator operator. He fantasizes about having an enormous penis and becoming a legend because of it. The keyword is "fantasize." Coover does nothing remotely close to these things. He might as well be a mute because the only thing he ever really does say is, "Caruther fucks his mother." Or did he fantasize that as well...
It was said in class that the elevator was used like a universe where once he stepped out, he no longer existed. I see the elevator more of a symbol of human emotion. "The accretion if tragedy. It goes on, ever giving birth to itself. Up and down...suffering and insufferable. Up and down. The repetition of up and down may simply just describe the motions of the elevator but it gives me a sense of emotion when placed after those words. It reminds me of the illusions Martin is creating in his mind. Their moods vary from excitement to horror...up and down, up and down.

I happened to notice a lot of reference to the color red in a Pedestrian Accident. Red truck cab, bent red nose, red hair, red rouges, red necks, red blood...red lights? If only Paul had seen red instead would he not be dead? ;)

-AAA