No Fun for Ambrose

Barth uses self-reflecting, meta-fictional devices to keep the reader from getting too absorbed in the story, which represents a fiction, a metaphor to Ambrose’s first sexual experience, rather than reality. Barth’s key meta-fictional device, indicating that the story is in fact just a metaphor, is when he reflects on his use of “blanks” in place of proper names. He states “it is an illusion that is being enhanced” (pg. 323) indicating that the reality of the story is in fact just an illusion.

Barth explains that a “fine metaphor…. may cast further and subtler lights upon the things it describes, 

sometimes ironically qualifying the more evident sense of comparison,” (pg. 324) and this is exactly what his metaphor does. Throughout his story, Barth includes details that can be directly compared to Ambrose’s sexual encounter with Magda, and the funhouse itself serves to represent Ambrose’s interpretation of his sexual event. 

The metaphor begins with the first lines of the story. “For whom is the funhouse fun? Perhaps for lovers. For Ambrose it is a place of fear and confusion” (pg. 323).  Ambrose tries to convince himself that his sexual experience was fun.  He sees the couples, “lovers,” around him enjoying the funhouse, and couples continue to enjoy Ocean City, showing that these couples continue to have sex and enjoy it.  He event realized that the whole point of the funhouse and Ocean City was a place for couples’ “preparation and intermission” (pg. 334). However, Ambrose just ends up lost in the funhouse, afraid and confused about his sexual life.

Ambrose’s recollection of his experience in the woodshed describes Magda: “ there she knelt sweating… pleadingly embraced his knees, and while bees droned in the lattice as if on an ordinary summer afternoon, purchased clemency at a surprising price set by herself” (pg. 326). Throughout the trip to Ocean City, Ambrose picks up on details that directly relate back to this woodshed experience. Magda is obviously Ambrose’s primarily focus, despite the exciting environment that surrounds him. In the car ride to ocean city, Ambrose notes how close Magda’s hand lies to his knee. Her hands are mentioned several other times, perhaps in reference to when she “pleadingly embraced his knees” in the woodshed. There are also several references to sweat and perspiration, both by Magda and Ambrose, which was also a detail included in their sexual experience- “she knelt sweating.” Barth’s carefully placed descriptions hint to the reader the symbolism behind the trip.

Perhaps more significant is Ambrose’s reflection on his sex with Magda, which he demonstrates through his reflection on the funhouse. Magda made it through the funhouse, along with Peter, and several other couples. She moved on from the sexual experience, Ambrose even considering that she forgot about the experience altogether. However, Ambrose is still lost inside the funhouse and is unable to “forget the least detail of his life” (pg. 326). He contemplates on his exit. Will he die in the funhouse, telling stories to himself in the dark, or will he find his way out with another lost person who turns out to be a “blind Negro girl?” Ambrose worries he will remain lost and confused, forever stuck in the details of his past. However, a more hopeful outcome would be finding Magda, his “blind Negro girl” (pg. 338) who was just as lost in the backyard when it was her turn to be slave and his turn to be Master. Ambrose implies in his final thoughts of the story that he wishes he had never entered the funhouse, indicating that he wishes he had never had sex with Magda in the first place. Instead of an untroubled future just like the other lovers in Ocean City who happily make it through the funhouse, Ambrose will end up operating his own funhouse, forever lost inside its fearful and confusing maze.