The Prisoner
The story's protagonist has a unique view of the metaphorical nature of his job. “He, Charlie, was a prisoner, confined eight hours a day to a six-by-eight elevator cage, which was confined, in turn, to a sixteen-story shaft.” Charlie’s imprisonment in an elevator is not due to some sinister external force. The story takes place in the late 1940s when many apartment buildings for the upper classes still employed workers to operate the elevator taking tenants up and down throughout the day. Since the very absence of an operator would indicate their obsolescence, Charlie is literally held prisoner to a certain extent. Later in the story, a tenant actually asks if he is even allowed to lease the elevator while on duty.
End Times
The story takes place on Christmas Day and begins very early. As he makes his way to work, Charlie observes the city while it is still mostly asleep. “Millions and millions were sleeping, and this general loss of consciousness generated an impression of abandonment, as if this were the fall of the city, the end of time.” This apocalyptic perception is placed into an ironic counterpoint with the setting. Christmas Day is usually viewed as jubilant and lively and optimistic. The perception that the day is dark and ominous is a projection of Charlie’s already pessimistic state of mind before he even gets to work.
Climate Change
Stuck inside his cage far from the sun and fresh air, Charlie judges the climate metaphorically according to shifts in the smells emanating up through the elevator shaft. “By noon, the climate in the elevator shaft had changed from bacon and coffee to poultry and game, and the house, like an enormous and complex homestead, was absorbed in the preparations for a domestic feast.” The passage suggests that Charlie’s ability to gauge the passage of time is unnatural. Rather than relying on natural timekeeping elements the temperature warming or the light becoming brighter as the sun rises higher, he must rely upon the unnatural sense of smell to determine time. This aspect further serves to cement Charlie’s perspective of his job as a prison that has separated him from normal social interaction.
Indoor Rainfall
As the story progresses, Charlie begins to exploit his lesser status among the upper-class tenants of the building to appeal to their expectations of Christmas charity. It starts innocently enough with the actual truth when he informs Mr. and Mrs. DePaul that his Christmas dinner will consist entirely of a sandwich. “Mrs. DePaul was a stout woman with an impulsive heart, and Charlie's plaint struck at her holiday mood as if she had been caught in a cloudburst.” This is another use of imagery that connects the mood of Christmas with climate. Her quick transition from a sunny mood wishing him a merry Christmas to a cloudburst of sadness for his circumstances is a reflection of the innate duality of Christmas Day in which the misery of others equally matches the great happiness of some.
