Peter is in awe of Oliver, who resembles a close friend he once had, but he bonds with Lola, who takes a protective stance toward him from the beginning.
The others are Lola, a rebellious juvenile delinquent who doesn't trust anyone Blossom, an overweight, spoiled girl who grew up in pampered wealth but who has recently been orphaned Oliver, a generous, self-confident, and arrogant athlete who has always been successful and popular and Abigail, a pretty girl who is shy and kind but is easily misguided, and worries about what others think of her. The story is told largely from the point of view of Peter, a boy who has been labeled as slightly slow. Themes include suspicion of authority and social breakdown under stress, similar to William Golding's Lord of the Flies. One of the characters validates that the food supply is "real meat.My mother and father.had it once." Another has had access to various goods apparently unavailable to others. The five, thrown together in these bizarre circumstances, must learn to deal with the others' disparate personalities, the lack of privacy and comfort, their clear helplessness, and a machine that only feeds them under gradually more exacting situations.Ĭertain episodes in the book suggest a scarcity economy, as the back-story of the characters differs based on apparently socioeconomic criteria. On one landing is a basin of running water that serves as a toilet, sink and drinking fountain on another, a machine with lights that intermittently produces food. Set in a dystopian America in the near future, the story tells of the experiences of five 16-year-olds who were living in orphanages who wake up to find themselves in a strange building that has no walls, no ceiling, and no floor: nothing but endless flights of stairs leading in every direction, seemingly infinite, so that it is impossible to get one's bearings or have perspective. Psychological exploitation of a social dynamics experiment. Escher, which provided the novel's title and setting, in a House of Stairs (1974) is a science fiction novel by William Sleator about orphaned teenagers placed in a house of stairs, similar to the lithograph print by M.
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