Lost in the Funhouse | Themes

Lost in the Funhouse Themes

Sex

Just as the funhouse poses mirrors in front of mirrors, tempting the viewer to mistake image for substance, "Lost in the Funhouse" seduces readers into believing the familiar literary truism that sex is a metaphor for language. What Ambrose learns in his journey through the three dimensional funhouse in Ocean City and the narrative funhouse of the story is that the opposite is true: language is just a metaphor for sex. Sex, in fact, is the "whole point . . . Of the entire funhouse!" Everywhere Ambrose hears the sound of sex, "The shluppish whisper, continuous as seawash round the globe, tidelike falls and rises with the circuit of dawn and dusk." He imagines if he had "X-ray eyes" he would see that "all that normally showed, like restaurants and dance halls and clothing and test-your strength machines was merely preparation and intermission."

Ambrose's fascination with and fear of...
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