Fleishman Is in Trouble

While Toby and Rachel’s relationship is strong, Toby uses the image of a functioning system to explain his felt sense of security. Shortly after getting engaged to Rachel, Toby thinks, “Praise the Lord! Praise him in his infinite wisdom! He felt then the peace of systems. He felt the solidity of a middle-class path. The world finally felt solid beneath him” (176). After the marriage began to dissolve, the image of the system as a source for security began to fade. As Toby ascends an elevator to Cyndi and Todd Leffer’s apartment with Hannah and Solly, he reflects, “Elevators had never bothered him before, but lately, his faith in systems was wobbly. Why had he put so much trust in elevators in the first place? Why did everyone?” (79).

Following his divorce, Toby begins to question his faith in the functioning of many things that he had never questioned before.

Of course, systems such as elevators are metaphors for marriage itself. When Toby asks why everyone puts such faith in elevators, he is also calling into question why people put such faith in the institution of marriage. Like the cables of an elevator, the supports of a marriage may suddenly snap or break without warning, but Toby never questioned such things until such a break happened to him.