The Real Meaning Behind Squid Games
Why You Loved The Show — An Opinion Piece
***WARNING: SPOILER ALERT***
Squid Games is a show that not only builds incredibly good character bonds but has captured the minds of millions and is now the most popular show in Netflix history. One would have to dig down to find why it called to so many people. Was it because we all aspire to get rich quickly one day? Perhaps we like to watch violent and bizarre shows. While those are two valid reasons, I think one reason takes the cake as the reason people watched the show.
We all want to be kids again and not worry about money.
The show starts out by showing Gi-Hun, a man so desperate for money in his life, he spends his time gambling on horses and begging people for money so he and his mother can eat. He even loses his daughter to the idea of not having enough money. At the beginning of the show, we see a man, desperate for happiness through means of money. What we get by the end of the show is a much different picture. We get a man, with all the money he could ever want, but his happiness is still not present.
THE GAMES
I would be remised if I didn’t find myself finding some comfort in old childhood games. I never played Squid, but it looks fun! The Squid Games might be the best metaphor or extreme of what humanity is facing. The gap between the rich and poor is getting larger. Those with money have so much money they do not know what to do with it. All the billionaires are leaving Earth on their rocketships, while the remaining just try to get through to the next day.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be a kid again? The only worries are those of winning a game of marbles or hopscotch. No monetary loss if you lose, just some fun with friends.
Il-Nam, the elderly player (#001) says it at the end of the series when he is laying on his death bed. We find out, that while he was a participant, he was the man behind the games, to begin with. He admits that the most fun he could have at that moment was to be a participant, a fellow human being, pretending to be on the same level as those who are bet upon like the horses in the beginning of the show.
As an extremely wealthy man, he proclaims that the poor and the wealthy have one thing in common: boredom. The entire show is based on wealthy people having fun watching other people (people desperate for money) essentially willing to kill other humans just at a chance for some of that money. From games like Red Light, Green Light to simple marbles, the chance to just play again is the appealing part of the show. The mind sees it but remembers about the rent it has to pay and slips back into a darker area. It remembers that it has to pay the car insurance, the water bill, any bills really. What would humanity be like if nobody had to have that worry again? I argue that the planet would be a loving and peaceful place to live.
If this show is not a plea to the super-wealthy to spend some of their earnings on humanity, then I don’t know what is. The top 10 richest people in the world hold over $1 Trillion. They are launching themselves into space, and still have money left over.
Yet while all these uber-wealthy are attempting to get off Earth, very few are spending their money on keeping the planet we have now in all its beauty. What if that $1 Trillion went towards renewable energy research, and funded great organizations that brought humanity into the equation? What if, like the man in the snow, freezing to death, was seen as a fellow person and given a chance at life. Not just living, but a life. A life worth living. A life with love and kindness as the dictator of our species instead of the idea of kicking and killing our fellow humans down in an attempt to be successful at capitalism.
The reason we watched and loved the show Squid Games is because we all want to be kids again, and not have to worry about money. This essay is a plea to those who read it to forget about the money and to channel that inner child again.
In summation, while the wealthy are swimming in funds as many struggles and fail to survive, each and every one of us would love nothing else but to be a kid again and only care about marbles and hopscotch. We don’t need to build rocket ships to have fun, just like we don’t need to buy private airplanes. Does anyone want to play a round of tetherball? I am in!
