The Ersatz Elevator

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2001

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-7

Chapters 8-13

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Chapters 1-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary

The author opens the book by defining the difference between being nervous and anxious, adding that this is one of two books in existence that defines the difference between the two—the other being the dictionary. He explains that this book will make the reader feel anxious because of all the troubling situations the Baudelaire orphans get into, concluding that if the reader doesn’t want to feel this way, they should “drop this book right out of your two or more hands and curl up with a dictionary instead” (3).

Since they were orphaned by the fire that destroyed their home and killed their parents, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire have been in the care of Mr. Poe. Their caseworker has set them up with many possible families, but all placements have ended badly. Mr. Poe’s latest placement is with the Squalors, who live on Dark Street, so named because there are no streetlamps and the trees block all sunlight. The children are concerned Count Olaf, a man who wants to steal their family fortune, will find and capture them, like he did their friends, the Quagmire triplets. The triplets, Duncan and Isadora, whose third sibling has gone missing, left the Baudelaires with a single clue to take down Olaf: V.F.D.

The inside of the Squalors’ building is as dark as the street because darkness is popular right now, and similarly, the elevator is unusable because stairs are all the rage. There are at least 40 floors to the penthouse, and Mr. Poe leaves the children to climb the steps alone because he has a helicopter to catch. As the door man walks him out, he jokes that it’s all uphill from here, meaning things will only get better after the long climb. Noting their situation and how strange their new home seems, the orphans aren’t as optimistic as their caseworker.

Chapter 2 Summary

It takes the children all day to climb the stairs, finally reaching an antechamber outside the penthouse. The Squalors, Jerome and Esmé, invite them into their darkened home and explain they were good friends of the kids’ parents. Jerome wanted to adopt the kids as soon as he heard about the fire, but Esmé wouldn’t let him because “Orphans were out then […] now they’re in” (27).

As the children rest, the Squalors tell them about their lives—how things come in and out of style and that the penthouse has 71 bedrooms for them to choose from. The phone rings, and the Squalors are thrilled to hear that light is back in, so they turn on lamps and open curtains. From the penthouse, the city looks tiny, and far below, gardeners chop down the trees that made Dark Street dark. It seems a waste to get rid of the trees just because darkness is out. The changes make the siblings anxious, as they worry, “The Baudelaires did not like to think of what would happen when orphans were no longer in, either” (36).

Chapter 3 Summary

While life at the Squalor penthouse is comfortable, the children also find the place to be large and boring. One night, Esmé sends Jerome and the children out to dinner because the organizer of the In Auction, an auction of things that are “in,” is coming over for dinner. Before they go, Esmé gives each child a pinstripe suit, which are in, that the children are not excited about. When Jerome argues that they were going to get meaningful gifts the children would enjoy, Esmé waves this away as nonsense. She says that she doesn’t appreciate that Jerome is “trying to teach my new children that they should ignore what’s in and what’s out” (51).

Reluctantly, the children change into their new suits, which are far too big on them, especially Sunny. As Violet and Klaus try to untangle Sunny from the mounds of fabric, Count Olaf arrives to tower over them.

Chapter 4 Summary

Count Olaf is dressed as the auctioneer and pretends to speak poor English to disguise himself, which fools Jerome and Esmé, but not the children. Esmé orders the children to stop arguing about the auctioneer’s identity and wanders away with him, leaving Jerome to cheer up the orphans by suggesting they slide down the banister instead of walking down the stairs. Jerome goes first to demonstrate, laughing all the way, but the children can’t get excited because of Olaf’s reappearance.

Chapter 5 Summary

Dinner is at a restaurant near the water called Café Salmonella, which serves nothing but salmon. As they eat, the children continue to argue the auctioneer is really Olaf, but Jerome doesn’t believe them, which makes the children scared to return to the penthouse. The door man is reluctant to let them in because no one is supposed to interrupt Esmé’s meeting, but when Jerome and the children get upstairs, Esmé informs them the auctioneer left hours ago. The children don’t know how Olaf could have left without anyone noticing, and Esmé doesn’t want to discuss it. Jerome leads the children to their rooms, saying they’ll probably sleep like logs, but the children don’t agree.

Chapter 6 Summary

The next day, while Jerome and Esmé go to buy parsley soda—the new “in” beverage—the children discuss where Olaf could be hiding. They conclude he might still be in the penthouse, and though it frightens them, they resolve to search the entire place, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs so they don’t get lost. When they don’t find him, the children realize Esmé said Olaf left the penthouse and the door man said he never left the building, which means Olaf might be hiding in an apartment on a lower floor. The children sneak down the steps, listening at every door, but they don’t find Olaf by the time they get to the bottom.

In the lobby, the door man maintains that Olaf never left the building before going back to his ocean-theme decorating—the newest “in” trend. He glues a starfish to the elevator door, and Klaus stares at it, realizing that the solution to Olaf’s location “was, indeed, right in front of his nose” (114).

Chapter 7 Summary

Since Olaf hasn’t left the building, the door man still has orders for the children not to return to the penthouse, so the children sit in the lobby until Jerome and Esmé return and give the door man new orders to let them up to the penthouse. After dinner, the children excuse themselves for bed, and Klaus lays out his thoughts. The only floor with two elevators is the penthouse, meaning the second set is probably a disguise for something. The children sneak out to look and find a secret passage in the second elevator. Klaus exclaims he knew the elevator was ersatz, defined as something pretending to be something it isn’t.

Resolved to search the fake elevator shaft, the children collect anything resembling a rope from the penthouse they can find and tie their findings all together. They throw the makeshift rope into the fake elevator shaft and slowly climb down. When they reach the bottom, they find a cage, and in the cage, they are shocked to see “the huddled and trembling figures of Duncan and Isadora Quagmire” (138).

Chapters 1-7 Analysis

These chapters comprise the first half of the book and introduce the main characters, plot, and essential backstory. Since the first book of the series, the Baudelaire orphans have been on the run from Count Olaf, a terrible villain who seeks to steal their family fortune when Violet comes of age. Along their adventures, the children met the Quagmire triplets (one of whom went missing prior to the children meeting), who are also on the run from Count Olaf and his plans to steal their family jewels. At the end of the previous book, Count Olaf captured the Quagmire triplets after they discovered a clue to a secret that could stop him (V.F.D.), but as The Ersatz Elevator opens, the Baudelaire children don’t know what this means or how to learn more about it. By the end of the book, they have still not discovered the truth of V.F.D., making this an ongoing mystery in the series. Count Olaf also escapes, meaning he will return in further installments with a new plot to capture the children.

Dark Street is the main setting of the novel and represents the book’s theme of The True Significance of Life. Dark Street is a rich neighborhood, and many of the people who live there are concerned with trends, even when these trends disrupt their daily lives. The complete darkness on the street and in the building satirizes the practice of living in uncomfortable conditions so they will appear acceptable to outsiders, showing how an obsession with appearances can lead to a disregard for sense. The darkness becomes metaphorical as the Baudelaires discover that their new home is concealing secrets.

In Chapter 2, Esmé is relieved to learn darkness is no longer In, demonstrating that she didn’t like the dark trend, and only went along with it so she wouldn’t be shunned by society. The moment darkness is Out, Esmé gets rid of anything that was only used to keep the penthouse dark, and down at the street, the trees are chopped down because they are no longer necessary or wanted, showing the wasteful lifestyle of following mainstream trends. In response to this, Violet worries what will happen when orphans are Out, and this shows how following societal trends can affect people’s lives. The Baudelaire children have a home now because orphans are In and Esmé believes having three orphans will offer her status. However, when orphans are Out, Esmé’s behavior suggests she wouldn’t hesitate to toss them away, as her preoccupation with the latest trends supersedes her concern for the orphans now in her care.

Esmé’s preoccupation with the trending practices of society continues the parody practice of adult figures in the series, as Snicket reports about adults who continue to act more like children than the Baudelaires do. These adult antics are illustrated when Jerome and Esmé give the children pinstripe suits because they are the In fashion. The suits are ill-fitting to the point of uselessness and indicate the Squalors’ priority of appearances over The True Significance of Life as they provide a home of sorts for the children. They confirm this further after Esmé shows no interest in providing the children with gifts they would prefer over the suits, even after discussing the siblings’ interests. Jerome’s admission that he wanted to get the children gifts they would enjoy, but that Esmé overrode his desires, illustrates the adult antics further as Jerome acts as if he has no agency. Esmé is more concerned with how her reputation could be tarnished somehow instead of making the Baudelaires feel welcomed and comforted. The knowledge that Jerome didn’t insist on better gifts when shopping with Esmé weakens the positive relationship he’s started to form with the children. Though he is kind to them, he is not willing to do what should be done to take care of them, which ultimately leads to him leaving them at the end of the book.

Count Olaf appears in the latter half of this section, jumpstarting the book’s main conflict and showing how the Baudelaire children are Achieving Growth Through Conflict. Though the children express their concerns at dinner in Chapter 5, Jerome is reluctant to take them seriously because Esmé doesn’t believe them, and Jerome doesn’t like to disagree with anyone. His aversion to conflict keeps him static as a character and demonstrates the absence of growth his character undergoes as he will not risk conflict with Esmé for the children’s sake. The children quickly understand their situation to be another mismatched home, in which the adults responsible for their wellbeing are not prepared for their ongoing conflict with Count Olaf. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny demonstrate the inner growth they’ve achieved over the course of the series as they take their concerns about Olaf into their own hands. They search the Squalors’ apartment and then the entire building, illustrating their evolution as they attempt to confront Olaf instead of waiting for him to appear on his own. This initiative leads them to discovering where the Quagmires have been as they search the ersatz elevator and sets them closer than ever to outsmarting Olaf’s machinations.

The Baudelaires are inspired to act further when they locate the Quagmires, illustrating their Bravery Inspired by Trustworthiness as they entrust one another and the Quagmires to solve their own problems. This mutual trust allows the siblings to exercise their strengths for the betterment of their situation, children using their individual skills to help the Quagmires. Klaus uses his ability to think critically and puts together the clues about the missing elevator, which leads them to the empty shaft. As they investigate the elevator shaft, Violet uses her inventing skills to devise a way to descend the shaft safely. The shaft’s existence underscores the book’s title, defining “ersatz” as something that is disguised as something else. The decoy elevator disguises Olaf’s secret tunnels in plain sight, which allows him to fool the children and Jerome. That Jerome remains clueless until the end supports the adult antics of Snicket’s narration, showing how teamwork and quick thinking allows the Baudelaires to discover the truth behind Olaf’s many plans.