The Catbird Seat

Mr. Martin is an avatar of efficiency. His department runs smoothly, and he finds any breach of etiquette—etiquette as he defines it—intolerable. His reliability makes him an ideal employee but a boring companion. Mr. Martin’s commitment to running an efficient office is the only thing in his life that the reader knows he cares about. With the rise of factories, efficiency was in ever-greater demand at the turn of the century. Mr. Martin, although he works in an office and not in a factory, represents the ideal worker. He is unimaginative—aside from his fanciful murder plot—abstemious, and wholly devoted to efficiency. His need for routine is not merely a quirk; it makes him a deadly enemy when Mrs. Barrows threatens his workplace routine.

Mr. Martin’s commitment to routine makes him rigid and uncompromising. Mr. Martin is not the boss of the company, but he acts as if he has a disproportionate stake in it, and the reader may wonder why efficiency matters so much to him. The office appears to be the only place where Mr. Martin has purpose. He never reflects on enjoying anything but the occasional glass of