High-Rise: The Importance Of Social Mobility

In J.G. Ballard’s dystopian novel, High-Rise, the violent degeneration of a newly-built, high-rise complex unfolds, employing the narration of Dr. Robert Laing, Anthony Royal and Richard Wilder for the duration of the breakdown. The sharp decline in both the building’s maintenance and the standard of living enjoyed by its residents suggests a sociopolitical statement by Ballard concerning human nature and sociality. As the building’s utilities malfunction and social convention decays, the residents approach a social breakdown so severe, they endanger their own lives. Ballard’s case for the simultaneous delicacy and importance of social order emerges as High-Rise demonstrates that social order requires the opportunity for mobility, the refusal

The belief that with hard work one may freely move across social strata provides individuals with the valuable hope that their social condition can be altered and is primarily contingent on their actions. The importance of social mobility within a community is predicated on the notion that it motivates and encourages ambitious pursuits. A testament to the dynamism of a healthy society, social mobility is both the incentive and reward for hard work. When individuals feel confined to their circumstances and see no opportunity for progression, their stagnation or regression is inevitable as their key motivation has been removed. Within the high-rise, the development of social paralysis leads to a complete degeneration of the building and it’s residents, as it enables hopelessness and the rationalization of regression. The building’s physical boundaries alone trigger vulnerability within residents such as Wilder, who considers the building a “huge and aggressive malefactor […] determined to inflict every conceivable hostility upon them” (71). With the occupation of all 1000 apartments, residents have literally no opportunity for ascension and are limited to their apartment floors, which are physical representations of their status. Wilder’s sudden determination and inability to “remember when he had made his decision to climb

Within the first 20 pages, Laing references a multitude of parties, all thrown for no apparent reason, during all hours of the day. Residents “were leaving their front doors ajar and moving casually in and out of each other’s apartments”, as they drank and interacted with one another (39). Though they mostly kept to their own floors or those immediately above and below, their communication and sense of community were both clearly present. Laing even admits to taking “a crude pleasure in joining in the gossip”, suggesting a lack of privacy concerning residents' private affairs (47). Gossip runs amok and spreads quickly throughout the building, as the frequency and intensity of the parties increase dramatically. Though the development of clans enables residents to engage in acts of violence without assuming responsibility or blame, it can be said the worst degeneration occurs when residents decide to isolate themselves. In the case of the clan or any group of individuals, power structures appear and evolve which generally leads to the establishment of rules and regulations, but isolation is indefinite. Wilder states that “the clan system, which had once given a measure of security to the residents, had now largely broken down, individual groups drifting into apathy or paranoia” (145). Controlling unpleasant urges becomes more straightforward in groups as conventional