“Some go up the steps and some go down”

“Some go up the steps and some go down” is both a remembered outburst and Domenico Tempesta’s compact account of social ascent. Recalling the words after a meeting with George B. Shanley, he takes his standing in Three Rivers, Connecticut as proof that the prediction came true, even as his authority at home rests on fear and coercion.

The phrase aboard the SS Napolitano

Domenico remembers shouting the phrase as he stumbled back below to steerage. A haughty couple aboard the SS Napolitano had stood watching while a waiter kicked him awake; the words answer that humiliating scene with an image of unequal movement, some rising while others descend. The phrase begins not as a calm maxim but as an angry declaration made in front of people who had witnessed his degradation.

A remembered measure of ascent

Walking home from a Democrat’s office, Domenico recalls that outburst and judges it fulfilled. He says he came to America and made something of himself: paisani listen to his advice, politicians seek his friendship, and throughout Three Rivers, Connecticut he is regarded as a man of dignity and worth. The immediate context sharpens the boast. Shanley has left open the possibility of appointments and favors, describing political goodwill as money in the bank; Domenico has said he will consider the request. He measures the distance from steerage not only in wealth or position, but in the deference others now show him.

Public dignity and private rule

The recollection turns sharply from the town’s respect to the household where, Domenico admits, that respect does not extend. He describes his wife as cooking, cleaning, and submitting to sex on the nights he orders, and says that he has frightened the defiance out of her. He likens her submission to that of Hattie on Bickel Road. The contrast unsettles the phrase’s celebratory logic: Domenico has risen in public esteem, yet within his home he reproduces a relation of domination. The steps mark his ascent, but the passage also exposes the coercion beneath the authority he claims as proof of success.