Squid Game

For this essay, I have chosen the topic of ideology and discourse, focusing on Netflix’s Squid Game (2021). Squid Game is a dystopian series where 456 players, all burdened by debt, accept invitations to take part in children’s games, with a deadly juxtaposition, competing for the chance to be the one to walk away with 45.6 billion won (£28,046,540.68). The players were selected by the host, who has all the players' background information. Each player signs a consent for,m which includes three rules. Clause 1: A player is not allowed to stop playing. Clause 2: A player who refuses to play will be eliminated. Clause 3: Games may be terminated if the majority agrees. Despite initially voting to end the games after the first round, most players chose to return to the games after facing the reality of their situations. This essay will explore how Squid Game critiques capitalist structures through its portrayal of power, hierarchy, and dehumanisation, using Louis Althusser’s theories of Repressive State Apparatus (RSA) and Ideological State Apparatus (ISA).  

In Squid Game, power is represented through the dynamic between the Host, the Front Man, VIPs, the guards and the players. As well as the stark contrast between the VIPs and the players. The Front Man, VIPs, and the guards hold absolute control over the players who are desperate for money and their survival. By dangling something the players desperately need right above their heads gives the Front Man and the VIP’s power as the games were created for their entertainment. The VIP’s place bets on the players exploiting them as their chess pieces in the games. The players are stripped of their identities and reduced to nothing but a number and a billion won symbolising the dehumanisation of the proletariat with ‘means of production’ for the bourgeoisie. When the players die, their bodies are placed in black boxes with red ribbons with a bow on top like a present, then they’re incinerated.  

An example of the stark comparison between the VIPs and the players would be the VIP Lounge and the living quarters for the guards and players. The VIP guests watch the games in a luxurious lounge which has a dehumanised aspect as people, specifically women, are used as furniture for the rich. The guards live in small rooms, including only the necessities like a prison cell. All the players live in a room with bunk beds stacked up high against the walls.  

Williams defines hegemony as ‘a social and cultural leadership which maintains power through consensus, agreement and persuasion.’(Williams 1977: 110) Althusser argues that hegemony is sustained and maintained through the Repressive State Apparatus and the Ideological State Apparatus. The Repressive State Apparatus maintained through physical ways of intervention. The Repressive State Apparatus is represented in Squid Game through the guards as they use violence and the threat of violence to maintain control of the players when they start to question the ideologies of the games. They executed and displayed the bodies of a contestant and three guards after it was discovered that the guards were tell the player, who happened to be doctor, what the games were in exchange that he operated on eliminated players so the guards can sell their organs. They executed the player, and the guards then displayed their bodies for the players to see and explained that they were killed because they went against an ideology of the games- equality. This scares the players to conferring to the rules. 

Ideological State Apparatus is maintained through controlling what people think through means like Public Service Broadcasting and propaganda, the school and health systems. ISA is represented in Squid Game through multiple ways. Moral justification reinforces the ideology that along as the players follow the rules everyone has a fair chance of winning. The game runners exploit family and social pressure, as most of the players are the providers for their loved ones, to convince the players to participate in the games. The game emphasizes the Ideology of Meritorcracy “hard work leads to success” (Ronsini, 2013). 

In conclusion, Squid Game is an allegory that critiques the capitalisms of society. Power is represented in the show through the means of hegemony.