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Commentary on Squid Game: the Horse and the Wagerer

***Major Squid Game spoilers***

Squid Game is a South Korean horror series created by Hwang Dong-hyuk for Netflix. It serves as a social commentary on capitalism and capitalist society. Various individuals that have in one way or another failed in life and are now desperate for money, receive an anonymous invitation to partake in a succession of children’s games in order to win a prize of 45.6 billion dollars. The catch? The games are deadly and if failed are fatal. The entirety of the series is thought provoking and heart wrenching. However the portion that I wish to scrutinize today is a scene in the final episode in which Gi Hun- the protagonist- visits Il Nam- the revealed antagonist- in his hospital bed. One repetitive and inflammatory inquiry that audiences across the globe have had is simply, why did Il Nam and the other VIPs not directly help those in poverty? It would not have even made a noticeable dent in their wealth to have set up social programs or in any way at all helped the poor, yet they chose to use the desperate in as their entertainment and bet on their lives, while watching comfortably behind glass. Gi Hun notoriously states in the final scene of Squid Game that they are not horses to be bet on. Yet in this scene, Gi Hun bets on the life of a person he sees on the streets. Il Nam says that no one will help them. Gi Hun, instead of helping them, instead of calling for help, or going down himself, makes a bet with Il Nam about what will happen next- a bet on the good of humanity. In this scene we see Gi Hun become a VIP; a rich man who watches and bets on the lives of the desperate and is entertained by the suffering of other human beings such as himself; viewing comfortably from behind glass. That was the point Il Nam was making in his final moments. In that moment Gi Nam became exactly what had been eating away at him everyday since he made it out the sole survivor. The point to be proven was that one could be both the horse and the wagerer.

#social commentary #squid game #il nam #gi hun squid game

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The Sea

(I wrote this for a scholarship but I wanted to share it here as well.)

“The shore is safer, Abiah, but I love to buffet the sea.” - Emily Dickinson, poet and Yale alumni

It may be easier and more comfortable to end education as soon as we step off the podium at our high school graduations, yet the value, the risk, and the opportunity given by further education immensely outweighs the obstacles. We would be depriving ourselves of the right earned by our predecessors to educate ourselves if we were not to jump at every chance presented to learn and to better ourselves as individuals and in turn better our society. I would like to refer to a quote from the novel The Good of this Place by Richard H. Brodhead, a retired Yale dean; ““I’m not a Math person,” or “I’m just not good at languages'' or ``I read some poetry and didn’t like it,” or “I already studied science in high school.” Let me invite you to the idea that such diagnoses are acts of self -limitation trying to pass themselves off as acts of self-knowledge.” Limitation in this manner is a human reaction in an attempt to protect oneself from what we don’t know; it’s completely understandable and entirely natural, yet it’s devastating to the project of education. Many of us dismiss knowledge based on fear, but the only way to make the most of yourself is to expose yourself to what you don’t already know and aren’t already good at. If you choose to stay by the shore, keep the notion that you could be ridding yourself of the possibility that you could be bringing value to your own mind, and in turn the change that our society so desperately needs.

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Mediocrity

We spend entirely too much time being afraid of our own mediocrity. We don’t want to sing too loudly in case someone finds out we don’t have a voice like glass. We don’t write music because we’re not Mozart. We don’t paint because we’re not Picasso. We don’t tell people we love them in case our voice shakes while we say it. We try to be pretty criers. We don’t dance because we aren’t that good. Henry Ford once said “Mediocrity is the worst enemy of prosperity.” Whilst there is some truth in Ford’s statement, mediocrity is not simply giving up on excellence but rather finding acceptance in your own definition of excellence. Prosperity by definition is the state of being successful and flourishing in your own life. Yet how can we prosper if we are afraid of mediocrity? If we crush ourselves in the ideology that we must be the best at everything and if we are not we’re better off not doing it at all. Western society emphasizes the idea of individualism. We all strive to have our own identity and find our calling in life. Mediocrity is villainous to this because we do not want to be imperfect individuals so we throw out opportunities to be happy doing what we love. The reality of our humanity is we’re all a little average at a lot of things. I would like to refer to a quote by Jane Fonda “Perfection is a toxic desire. We are not supposed to be perfect. The challenge is not to be perfect, it’s to be whole.” The truth is we’re all not that good. We have to stop suffocating ourselves in turn our children and then their children and all the generations to come in our country. We have to allow ourselves to enjoy the things we love even if we aren’t prodigies at it. Set an example for our society to build upon. Scream that song at the top of your lungs regardless of whether your voice is glass. Write music that will never win a Grammy award. Create paintings that will only be displayed on the fridge door. Tell people you love them and let your voice be shaky. Cry big ugly tears. Dance really badly. Because life is too short to be afraid of being human.

#mediocrity #social commentary #nonfiction #feelgood