SQUID GAME: AN ANALYSIS

On class, wealth and inequality.

Anyone that knows me, knows I am a sucker for South Korean dramas. I have probably been seeing them for over a decade at this point, so you can guess that I have seen A LOT of K-dramas. There are many reasons I love K-dramas; the stories, the acting, the very beautiful performers (duh), the costumes, the location choice, and so on.

One thing I love about South Korean movies and dramas is they always have something to say. This isn’t to say movies from other countries don’t have anything to say but I think movies give an insight into the society they come from. Since I am already fascinated by South Korean culture, it's of no surprise that I am fascinated by what their movies/shows have to say and how they say it. Squid game is one of the few pieces of Korean entertainment that transcended the niche of K-drama watchers. In many ways, it was very captivating and intriguing. I did a rewatch recently and I have a lot of thoughts as usual, so I decided to write an essay.

Squid game has a fascinating way of examining socio-economic class. The premise of the show goes thus: A mysterious secret organisation hosts a game show that targets people in desperate financial situations. This is so that they would be more willing to play games that put their life on the line. All of that is so the contestants stand a chance at winning a large amount of money. The show even does a literal depiction of money dangling over their heads, very on the nose. 

The show does a good job of making the consequences of being born in a lower class explicit. It shows poverty is caused by many factors i.e. being born into the wrong family, being an immigrant, etc. It takes the implicit violence of poverty and makes it explicit by juxtaposing the contestants’ real lives with the danger of playing the games. 

There are many classes shown in the Squid game. The lower classes are clearly represented by the players of the game. I do however think the guards in pink are a representation of the middle class. Think of the pink tracksuit wearing guards as the managers or small business owners, they do have certain luxuries that don’t put them in a state of constant desperation. They are however not out of the woods yet. They still have to go through the grunting system.  I also think it does highlight the loneliness of the middle class. This is purely anecdotal but I do think from my observation that the more people climb up the class ladder, the more isolating they become. This may be for various reasons i.e. lack of time to socialise, distance from family, etc. From individuals to families, there seem to be fewer third spaces for the middle class. 

Third place refers to the social surroundings that are separate from the home “the first place” and the workplace “the second place”. Examples of third places are churches, libraries, viewing centres, beer parlour/bars, etc.

I think that loneliness is perfectly shown by the pink tracksuit guards living in a small cubicle and disconnected from other guards. Compare this to the game, where the players are together in one room, even though the players are in a paternalistic environment/system.

In many ways, Squid Game showed the violence of wealth inequality in general but it was also specific to South Korea’s wealth inequality. Our protagonist, Seong Gi-hun is initially a very unlikeable character. Early on, he is presented as a classic deadbeat dad. He is divorced, doesn’t have custody of his daughter, and seems to be fueling his gambling addiction, despite being severely in debt. This addiction also lands him straight into the laps of organised criminals. From his introduction, the audience isn’t meant to be sympathetic towards him. At least, I wasn’t. When I initially watched the squid game, I wasn’t yet aware of the complexities of things like addiction, so Gi-hun didn’t seem like someone the show wanted me to have sympathy for. All of that changed in episode 5, where Gi-hun experiences a PTSD-induced flashback to being beaten along with other strike workers by the police. We get to see him witness a co-worker die.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am a history nerd. If I am curious about a country, I read about the country's culture, politics, etc. You already know that I love South Korea, so that means I have done various deep dives into the country’s history. When I saw the flashback, I thought to myself “This must be referencing the Ssangyong Motor strike that happened in 2009”. 

What is the Ssangyong motor strike, you ask?

This was a 77-day strike in 2009 done by the workers in the Ssangyong Motor Union in response to abruptly laying off 2,500 workers which accounted for 43% of its workforce. For you to understand why this was such a big deal, you have to understand the climate that fed into the strike.

First, you have to understand that out of the developed countries, South Korea has one of the worst safety nets. So if you lose your job in South Korea, you are in actual trouble because there isn’t much to rely on. This is why it’s not easy to do mass layoffs except in special cases like bankruptcy. This is the loophole Ssangyong heads (led by China’s Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC)) leveraged. Due to a series of actions that could at best be described as lack of care for the workers of Ssangyong Motors and at worst be described as fraudulent and cooking the books, all of a sudden a good company was suddenly bankrupt. The workers tried to find a middle ground such as pay cuts and so on but it all ended up with 2,500 workers being laid off. Then the strike began.

Striking Ssangyong Motor Co. workers occupied the auto plant in Pyeongtaek, South Korea in 2009 (Photo: Lee Jin-man)

Police brutally suppressed the strikers. The strikers still haven’t recovered till this day. The workers were blacklisted because no one likes “troublesome” workers. Then they were sued by the police and Ssangyong Motors and hefty fines (that no worker could ever realistically pay) were imposed on them. Their wages, homes, and anything of value they owned were seized by the courts and given to the company and the police. That judgment was eventually overturned in 2022, see here. There have been dozens of suicides within the strikers because let’s face it, this is a difficult position to be in. Read one of the surviving striker’s perspectives here.

With the understanding of the PTSD-induced flashback, I began to feel empathy for Gi-hun. I began to see him in a different light. If we were to see Gi-hun as one of the striking workers, you would probably assume he lost his family because he could no longer support them. His gambling and quest for a jackpot start to make sense when you realise, it’s probably nearly impossible for him to get legitimate work. I think what Squid Game does with complex characters like Gi-hun is that it invites us to be a bit more understanding of people who are struggling and not just conclude that these are bad/lazy people who made bad decisions.

Another way Squid Game was specific to South Korea, was the representation of the people the game was meant to entertain in the first place- the white men with masks, the money behind the madness. The thing is South Korea didn’t become the developed nation we all love all on its own. They had help from the West, specifically America. There was a point when America backed dictatorships( side note, we are going to have to discuss the long history of America going against values it publicly proclaims at some point). Basically in Asia, America backed countries like South Korea for their interest in fighting communist influences aka fighting against China and by extension North Korea in the Cold War. In some ways, you can’t discuss the rapid growth of South Korea without bringing up Western interests. So that’s why the people being entertained in the game aren’t just rich guys but foreign white Western money.

I have informed you about a lot of things, some I saw on my first watch. Some I had to see on my second watch. Ultimately, I think aside from entertainment, Squid Game gets us to take a deeper look at things like class, wealth, poverty, and inequality on a structural level. The irony is the creator of Squid Game with all of its critiques of wealth, inequality, and shining light on the desperation of poverty was forced by circumstances to sign a contract that would get him virtually nothing compared to how much Netflix has made from Squid Game. For more on that read here.

If you have read this far

First, thank you. If you liked what you read, kindly share. The more subscribers/readers, the merrier. Also, let me know your thoughts about this essay and Squid Game in the comments.

Until the next time I write to you, Bye.