House of Stairs

“All he could see were stairs. The high, narrow landing on which he stood seemed to be the only flat place there was, and above and below him, growing smaller in the distance, were only flights of steps. Without railings they rose and fell at alarming angles, forking, occasionally spiraling, rising briefly together only to veer apart again, crossing above and below one another, connected at rare intervals by thin bridges spanning deep gulfs. Nothing supported them; the glossy white material from which they were made seemed to be strong enough to arch alone across great distances. They were not outdoors, the all-pervasive yet indirect glare came from artificial light, but he could see no walls, floors, or ceilings. Only stairs.”

This passage describes the setting in which the entire narrative, apart from the epilogue, takes place. The rather bare environment in which the protagonists dwell evokes unfamiliarity and unease in order to enhance the mystery of their situation. In addition, the minimalist setting leaves room for the emotional aspect of the narrative, which revolves mainly around human relationships.

“Walking down the corridor at the old orphanage, the first orphanage, the one he loved. His room. His and Jasper’s room. The window seat, the two beds. Jasper looking up from his desk, smiling, glad to see him. Jasper saying something. Something very important. The most important message, the secret message.”

In this quote, Peter is experiencing one of his daydreams for the first time. At this point in the story, Peter’s memories are clear, and although he feels nostalgic, he is able to distinguish between his dream and reality. This moment foreshadows the young boy later spiraling into hypnotic trances as an escape from his current situation.

“The thing I can’t figure out is, are we aboveground, underground, or what. I mean, if we knew we were aboveground, the way out would be down there; if we knew we were underground, the way out would be up.”

Lola’s practical mindset is exemplified by this quote, in which she tries to make sense of their environment. The lack of common points of reference in the house of stairs, such as the most basic understanding of “up” and “down,” enhances the characters’ confusion and unease. This disorientation adds intrigue and foreshadows the psychological torture that the protagonists are about to endure.

“‘How old are you? I’m sixteen.’

‘So am I.’

‘Hmmm, that’s also kind of interesting. Both from states “homes”’—she said the word with an ironic twist—‘and both sixteen.’”

In this passage, Peter and Lola are discovering the main common traits that all five teenagers share. Once again, Lola is trying to make sense of their situation, exemplifying her leadership skills and critical mind. However, those characteristics appear rather random and only add to the confusion, which emphasizes narrative tension.

“She kept just ahead of him as they went on, turning back often to talk. ‘So what’s your life story? What about your parents? Did you ever know tem?’

‘No. I…can’t remember anything about them. They told me that my father…died in the war—’

‘Same as everybody else.’”

Throughout the novel, the characters reference elements from their lives outside the house of stairs that hint at the social, political, and economic characteristics of the society they are from. In this example, Peter mentions an unspecified war that seems to be common knowledge in that world and to have affected many adults in the society. The clues gleaned through those indirect references paint a picture of a highly segregated, authoritarian, surveillance-based society.

“Inside himself he knew that the situation was, of course, hopeless; and that it was only a matter of time until even she would have to give up. But in the meantime it was diverting to follow along after her; there was, after all, nothing else to do, except dream.”

At the beginning of the story, Peter is characterized as timid, sensitive, and fearful. His helplessness drives him to take refuge in his daydreams, which initially provide him hope of a better future but later turn into a sort of unhealthy coping mechanism.

“She was staring at Lola; there was an unexpected hardness in her small eyes. They were like a doll’s eyes, strangely emotionless; and, to her surprise, Lola felt a pang of fear.”

At first glance, Blossom is characterized as simply whiny and privileged, but several narrative elements hint at her darker nature. She and Lola are framed as clear opposites: Lola’s brash behavior contrasts with her moral sense, while Blossom’s harmless appearance belies her “unexpected hardness” and cruelty. A level-headed character like Lola having a fear reaction to Blossom foreshadows that Blossom will be a force to be reckoned with during the experiment.

“Yes, it was a game, a challenge, and she wanted to win. But it was a game with no apparent logic or rules. For the second time, but not for the last, black fingers of doubt crept into her usually confident mind.”

Most of the time, Lola is characterized as confident and practical. However, several instances depict her losing hope or doubting herself, which adds depth to her character and reveals her emotional arc throughout the novel. Significantly, at this point in the story, the characters still view their situation as a “game” or a “challenge,” which shows that they are not completely hopeless and desperate.

“Some people still live in their own private houses. You didn’t know that, did you? Hardly anybody knows. I mean, the President lives in one, everybody knows that. But some of his top advisers do too, his chief aides and advisers. There’s a whole neighborhood with houses in it, and a big wall around it. Of course it’s a secret because if anyone outside knew about the houses, they would think it wasn’t fair, and it would be bad for the administration’s image.”

This passage about Blossom’s life outside the house of stairs hints at a highly segregated society. Blossom describes a privileged élite living in luxury while most people live in “residential megastructures” (34) and relying on media propaganda to give a semblance of social equity. Her comments paint a picture of an authoritarian regime, and the house of stairs can, therefore, be viewed as a natural extension of it.

“We’re in a prison, do you realize that? A prison. And it’s not just an ordinary prison, it’s a torture chamber. Get that? A torture chamber. But it doesn’t torture our bodies, it doesn’t do easy, obvious little things like pulling off our arms and legs or sticking red-hot knives under out fingernails. Oh, no. It’s worse. It’s supposed to make us go insane, don’t you realize? […] All those stupid stairs going nowhere, no flat walls, no nowhere to hide, no way to get out, no explanation. Don’t you realize? They made it on purpose, it’s all for us, they’re doing something to us.”

Lola’s realization about the house’s true purpose contributes to the themes of The Social Impact of Authoritarianism and Power and Control. Building on Quote #10, the house of stairs can be viewed as an extreme interpretation of an authoritarian regime regulated by surveillance and psychological manipulation.

“[Lola] was unlike any girl Oliver had ever known (he hadn’t known very many), and made him feel slightly uneasy, for she did not respond to him the way other girls had. He felt no power over her, no ability to make her stammer and blush by merely smiling at her, and for this reason he did not know how to behave with her.”

This quote exemplifies Oliver’s lack of experience around girls due to the segregated way young people are socialized in their highly segregated society. In addition, this passage hints at Oliver’s controlling nature and his desire to gain power through domination.

“[B]oys and girls were kept strictly segregated in all state institutions. As they grew into their teens they would sometimes have classes together in order to get used to one another; but they had all been taught from their earliest years about the danger of mixing too freely with the opposite sex. It was immoral to get very intimate with anyone, unless you were about to be married.”

This passage provides background information about the way boys and girls are socialized in the society depicted in House of Stairs. The narrative hints at a segregated society with strict rules of conduct, including between genders, enforced through propaganda, conditioning, and surveillance.

“It had never been like that with Jasper…Jasper…The old home. The room they had shared. The pictures came easily to his mind now, and they had undergone a change. The walls of the room swayed with rainbow colors, and the furniture seemed to be alive, each object with its own benevolent personality, murmuring comforting words to him, enclosing and protecting him.”

At this point in the story, Peter’s daydreams are becoming more and more trance-like. Peter finds them more attractive than ever and harder to escape. However, his memories are taking on an idealized, hypnotic quality that reveals his desperation and loneliness in the house of stairs. As Peter sinks into his daydreams more and more every day, he seems to lose his grip on reality, which adds suspense to his emotional journey.

“And, of course, whether it worked or not was part of a pattern, and there would be other patterns too. But as yet they were too close to the outside world to be able to understand them, or to tolerate what was inevitably going to come.”

The conclusion of the first part of the novel highlights the significance of patterns, which foreshadows their importance in relation to the behavioral conditioning that the protagonists are undergoing. Although most of the novel is seen from the characters’ alternative perspectives, the narrator in this passage is omniscient and removed from the story. This narrative choice creates an ominous tone that adds tension and suspense to set up Part 2.

“‘But really, this is kind of silly,’ Abigail tried to explain. ‘I mean a book is much less personal than a programmed screen that can respond to you according to your needs, and concentrate on what’s hard for you, and go fast on what’s easy. A book stays the same no matter who’s reading it. And anyway, I don’t see how anyone could read a whole long book, it must be so boring!”

The society in which the protagonists of House of Stairs live is depicted as a highly disciplined and segregated regime. One of the means through which authority is enforced is propaganda and information manipulation. This reality is evidenced by the teenagers’ reactions to Peter liking books, as they are more used to uncritical media consumption. This passage can, therefore, be read as the author indirectly addressing the reader through satirical dialogue.

“What impressed Abigail was that Lola never did things because other people wanted her to; Lola did what she wanted to do. To Abigail, who was always considering what boys thought of her, or what the other girls in her group would think, who was always trying to avoid doing whatever might hurt someone, or make her disliked, Lola’s behavior was hard to understand. It made Abigail, in some strange way, feel trapped; trapped, and then resentful of Lola’s freedom.”

Each of the main characters has been influenced by the highly regimented authoritarian society in which they were brought up. Abigail, for instance, is a rule-follower and a people-pleaser. She responds well to authority and is therefore framed as a model citizen until the narrative reveals how easily her submissive nature can be corrupted. In that aspect, Abigail is Lola’s opposite, and this quote reveals how she almost realizes the power of critical thinking.

“At first it had been confusing and very difficult, for the possibilities of such subtle changes in movement were practically endless, and there was no way of knowing what the machine would prefer. […] And it was just this intensity, the fact that they were operating under the direst necessity that any of them had ever known, that had created a new, specialized sense in each of them. It was a sense of what the machine would like, a feeling of its personality, so to speak. [They] had all, sooner or later, unconsciously become aware of the pattern through which it was leading them.”

This quote shows how the characters are learning to respond to the machine, and therefore, Dr. Lawrence’s conditioning is becoming more effective. The personification of the machine itself highlights its power over the teenagers, who believe that it has a “personality,” that it “would like” certain behaviors, and that it is “leading them.

“And as she danced, and the pellets kept coming, Abigail tried to understand what had made it work. She remembered the premonition she had felt a short while before, the chilling premonition, and for a moment, she wondered if the answer lay there. But suddenly she was afraid to think about it. She wanted to lose herself in the dance, to dance and dance; and then to eat, and forget.”

In several instances throughout the novel, Abigail almost questions the rules that she has been taught to obey her whole life. However, her submissive nature and fear of negative consequences always win, as illustrated by her desire to keep dancing rather than start challenging the system. This moment echoes Peter’s behavior, as he also chooses to escape difficulties in Chapter 9 by going to sleep; however, the young boy eventually becomes more critical while Abigail gives in to the machine.

“‘And I know it feels good to go back there,’ she went on, ‘but listen: There’s something else that would feel even better. Beating this place, winning out against it, wouldn’t that be great, Peter, knowing that you’d done that? […] And if we don’t, if we don’t win…the only alternative is what that damn machine is going to make us do to each other.’”

Building on the theme of The Social Impact of Authoritarianism, Lola’s speech to Peter highlights the importance of taking action against an unjust system rather than trying to escape it through fantasy. She offers Peter the only way to beat the system, which is through solidarity and resistance, and argues that it can lead to individual liberation.

“That was all Blossom needed. Not to be able to eat? How intolerable! She had to put a stop to the idea; to do something that would put herself in control again.”

Each of the five protagonists symbolizes a different way to react to an unjust, oppressive system. Blossom, who is very privileged, represents the ruling class. When Lola offers a way to fight the machine, Blossom rejects it because that would mean sacrificing her comfort and social status.

“It was several things, all connected. It was the reward of winning over the machine, which he hated and feared; it was the reward of feeling strong and independent, of having his own identity, a feeling he had never known; it was the reward of caring about her, of being essential to her plan and not letting her down; it was even the reward of her caring about him.”

In this quote, Lola realizes the power of rewarding someone’s behavior rather than punishing him, or in other words, the power of compassion over fear. This notion applies to individual development, as in Peter’s case, as well as social dynamics. The narrative, therefore, suggests that the threat of authoritarianism can only be countered by solidarity and positive reinforcement.

“And gradually something much deeper than just a tendency to trick and humiliate began to develop in all three of them. It was a total mistrust, an incessant wariness, like the constant expectation of a blow. […] But it was not simply being afraid, for aggression was just as important as self-protection, and they learned to detect quickly whenever anyone was in a vulnerable position, and then strike accordingly; to seek out and make use of any weak points. They no longer saw one another as people, but only as things to make use of.”

The negative effects of conditioning are becoming evident as Blossom, Oliver, and even Abigail become more selfish and cruel. In addition, this impacts their mental health as well, as their anxiety and paranoia develops. The alienating nature of authoritarianism is also made clear by the fact that they now only view one another as objects, or means to an end.

“If he did not give in, and let himself die, she would know for the rest of her life that success had been possible and that she had let herself fail. Whatever was going to happen to her in the future, it would be far worse for her if she had to bear the failure alone. And he realized that even more important than the fight against the machine was his caring for her. He could not desert her.”

Peter’s character arc concludes with the young boy growing stronger and more independent thanks to his friendship with Lola. This quote exemplifies Peter’s newfound confidence and illustrates the power of human connection.