Squid Game: What Is Life Worth?

Spoiler Warning: This article contains major plot information.

Squid Game took the media world by storm immediately following its release on September 17th. The South Korean drama, written by Hwang Dong-hyuk, follows Seong Gi-hun through a secret series of children’s games with fatal consequences for losers. Seong Gi-hun, a gambling addict deeply in debt, and all the other contestants try to be the last one alive to claim a large cash prize upon victory to pay off their debts.

The show starts by painting a picture of the main character’s life before he is kidnapped to participate in the games. He lives with his mother, can’t make interest payments on his debts, and has a strained relationship with his daughter, who lives with her mother. All classic signs of someone who is in need of a redemption story. 

When Gi-hun wakes up in a compound surrounded by 455 other contestants, the focus of the show becomes clear. A giant glass piggy bank is suspended by ropes in the air. The one unifying trait of all the competitors is their economic situation. The desire for mammon is paramount to all other themes in this series.

Even though they were all kidnapped, many of the contestants appear to be in a hopeful mood prior to the start of the first event, a game of Red Light, Green Light. Just after the giant robot doll announced a red light for the first time, a previously upbeat contestant moves but an inch. Bang. A turret from the wall shoots him down with one clean shot. And with that shot, the countless character deaths of Squid Game begin.

Portraying human death is in itself not harmful for most viewers, as going to any Catholic church with a crucifix center-stage would prove. But unsurprisingly, the circumstances surrounding the deaths in the television show differ greatly from the death of Jesus. After the first game, the remaining contestants are returned to their homes. However, they choose to come back, knowing that they will likely face death. The gambling of their own lives for prize money can be seen as a logical next step when following modern morality. If the elderly and the sick should have control over their own life or death (euthanasia), why not let another marginalized group (the indebted) be able to have this choice? The logic breaks down when reality is inserted into the equation, where such “freedoms” only make little of the steep price that Christ paid for our lives with His death on the Cross.

There are some wholesome themes that can be garnered from Squid Game if it is looked at hard enough. Acts of sabotage and selfishness are in abundance, but also some heroic acts of unity and altruistic behavior dot the show. The main character is saved in the first episode when a random stranger grabs his collar, preventing his movement from being seen. Although in the current state of affairs we do not have to worry about being gunned down during a game of Red Light, Green Light, we can learn that even in our sheltered existence, human life is worthy of our protection and care. 

In the series finale, Gi-hun and Sang-woo are the two last remaining competitors. They must play the eponymous and traditional Korean children’s game known as the Squid Game. After a long hard-fought battle (even after watching the scene twice the game’s rules makes no sense to me), Gi-hun emerges victorious. Instead of taking the money for himself, Gi-hun invokes the third clause of the contract he signed with the maker of the games, stating that if the majority of contestants vote to leave, their desire must be granted. In a tragic act of hopelessness, Sang-woo slits his own throat instead of voting, telling Gi-hun to give some of the prize money to his sick mother. 

This act of rejecting mercy brings to mind the choice we are given when facing God’s mercy for us. While we could go the route of Sang-woo and give up, overwhelmed with guilt and despair, we are called for greater things. We are called to follow the saints that came before us, answering the call to ministry with zeal and compassion for others.

Squid Game forces us to examine how we estimate the value of a human life. A Christian worldview says that a giant glass pig with paper inside is not worth even one human life. Pushing materialism to its limits with life-or-death situations serves as a reminder of the emptiness of that philosophy in all shapes and sizes.

Featured image courtesy of Chetraruc via Pixabay