The Tale of the Stairs

Teaching Ethics with Short Stories (TESS) is a collection of short stories and guiding questions that encourages discussions over a wide range of ethical questions. In this post, I answer the questions on The Tale of the Stairs.

This story makes heavy use of metaphors. What do the stairs and the loss of different senses represent? What is the moral of the story?

The stairs represent the social ladder (i.e., the social structure in which individuals at the bottom have a low socioeconomic status [SES] and individuals at the top have a high SES): Individuals at the bottom of the stairs were “plebian[s]” who “came all in rags”; and individuals at the top of the stairs were “nobles”.

The loss of different senses represents the loss of the ability to empathise (i.e., to understand how an individual feels) with those at the bottom of the social ladder. As the protagonist lost his senses, he lost his ability to hear their “groan[s]”, see their “bleeding wounds” and remember his association with the “ragged folk”.

The moral of the story is that individuals who rise on the social ladder lose the ability to empathise with those at the bottom of the social ladder.

When rising on the social ladder, is it possible to feel fully at home in the culture that you grew up in as well as in the new culture that you gain access to through social mobility?

When rising on the social ladder, it is not possible to feel fully at home in the culture that an individual grew up in as well as in the new culture that he gained access to through social mobility. An individual feels fully at home in a culture only if he is emotionally secure in it. According to Ganesh, individuals who “rise in life … have access to two worlds” but find “emotional security” in neither. Therefore, when rising on the social ladder, it is not possible to feel fully at home in the culture that an individual grew up in as well as in the new culture that he gained access to through social mobility.

Why might it be difficult for high level professionals who came from modest origins to cater to the needs and speak out for the interests of the social world that they grew up in?

It might be difficult for high level professionals who came from modest origins to cater to the needs and speak out for the interests of the social word that they grew up in because these require the ability to empathise with the social word that they grew up in. However, these high level professionals might have lost this ability. According to Smirnenski, individuals who rise on the social ladder might lose the ability to sense the suffering of those at the bottom. And according to Ganesh, these individuals might become “alienat[ed]” from their family and friends.

What emotional costs does Janah Ganesh envision for social risers? Do you think that social risers experience more mental health problems than people who stayed at the same rung of the social ladder as they moved from their families of origin to their professional lives?

Ganesh envisons alienation as an emotional cost for social risers. On the one hand, social risers are alienated from family. For example, he describes these individuals as having been “educated beyond intelligibility to their own kin” and “familial estrangement”. On the other hand, social risers are also alienated from friends. For example, he suggests that individuals with a “steeper … social ascent” have a “lower … number” of “schoolmates [they] still know anything about”.

I am unclear whether social risers experience more mental health problems than people who stayed at the same rung of the social ladder as they moved from their families of origin to their professional lives.