The house of stairs

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The novel The House of Stairs (1974, English The House of Stairs ) by William Sleator is about five orphans who are imprisoned in a house because of an experiment in which there are only stairs.

In his best-known work, William Sleator describes five teenage orphans who are used, without their knowledge and consent, in an experiment to test the limits of their willpower and adaptability until the situation gets out of hand. The purpose of the experiment is to try to create aggressive and unwilling soldiers through conditioning . The central point in this science fiction - novel is later supplied a machine that prints food only to certain actions of the participants only with aggressive attacks young people with food. This aggravates the situation, which is ultimately resolved by the refusal of violent behavior by two young people.

The novel was first published in German in 1976 by Walter Verlag , and since then there have been several new editions by Dtv .

content

The five sixteen-year-old teenagers Peter, Lola, Abigail, Blossom and Oliver are kidnapped and locked in a huge room consisting only of stairs and bridges connected with small platforms. There is no exit, no matter in which direction you walk up the narrow stairs.

They use a trough on a bridge as a toilet, through which a constant stream of water runs. Their only source of nourishment is a strange machine that, when they do certain things that they have to find out for themselves, spits out small balls of meat as a reward. This only works intermittently at intervals of hours. When this moment has come, the young people find out through inarticulate whispering voices, which each of them interprets differently, and through the flashing of a red (sometimes also green) light. However, they never get enough food to fill them.

Over time, through the trained actions, the participants improve their sense of what they have to change next, and the machine provides enough food for a longer period of time. When Blossom begins to incite the others against Lola, they are rewarded again. This is how they understand that violence and evil deeds are required of them. Peter and Lola want to defend themselves against it and distance themselves from the other participants and their aggressions. They starve alone for a long time. The behavior of the group becomes more and more tense until they launch an attack on the two outsiders that does not go as planned, but still brings them food. Shortly before Lola and Peter die, they decide to give up. But then all five of them are picked up by researchers and the situation is clarified. It was an experiment to train them to be alert and unwilling soldiers. Since the experiment fails with Lola and Peter, they are sent to an island, but the other participants have to stay in the laboratory for further experiments.

characters

  1. Peter : He mourns the old days when he spent a lot of time with Jasper, his best friend from an orphanage he once went to. He usually sits around and stares straight ahead, because he escapes into a kind of dream world from which only Oliver can wake him, because he sees Oliver again as his best friend Jasper.
  2. Lola : She is sassy, ​​energetic and dynamic. She is a headstrong personality with a strong will who likes to lead the group. She smokes, but actually all “children” are forbidden.
  3. Blossom : She is the only one who has ever lived in a real house with her family. She is overweight and takes great care to eat regularly. She will stop at nothing to gain an advantage. In addition, she prefers to dominate the group and incite the group members against Lola.
  4. Abigail : A pretty blonde who, like almost every girl, falls in love with Oliver. She often falls victim to the pranks of others as she is very gullible.
  5. Oliver : He's playing with Abigail's feelings, because he knows exactly how addicted she is to him, unfortunately he gets violent towards her. He also enjoys being the only one to wake Peter, it gives him a sense of power. He is quite well built and handsome. He would also like to be the leader of the group.

See also

literature

  • William Sleator: The House of Stairs. Five young people fight for their lives . Walter Verlag, Olten and Freiburg im Breisgau 1976, ISBN 3-530-82453-4 .
  • William Sleator: The House of Stairs. Five young people fight for their lives . Dtv, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-423-07859-6 .
  • William Sleator: House of Stairs . Firebird Books, New York 2004, ISBN 0-14-034580-9 .

Web links

  • Materials on The House of Stairs on the State Education Server Baden-Württemberg.