The Game of Life is a board game marketed towards kids and their families. The object of the game is to move your way through major life events while making the most money of all the other players. This game reflects the idea of the American Dream, which refers to the prosperity and good fortune that America is stereotypically known for providing for its citizens. There are many versions of the American Dream, but the most prevalent is that of a house, a car, a husband and wife, some kids, and a good paying job that not only allows the family to live comfortably, but also to pay for the so-called "finer" things in life. The Game of Life focuses on this image as the ideal in which achieving these things will help the player win the game because of the high monetary value awarded to each life event. Since this game is marketed toward kids and their families, it is attempting to enforce the hegemonic ideal of the American Dream in people at a young age and push them toward achieving this image.
I agree that the game of life is demonstrative of the American Dream. It shows players that life starts after high school, when you have the option of attending college or going straight to finding a job. What I have always found interesting is that, when I was little, my sisters and I would fight over was who got the highest salary and who got the prettiest house. The fact that the game is centered on obtaining the material objects-house, car, money-shows that a large part of the American Dream is obtaining objects that represent your wealth; however, the other aspect of the game is creating a family and doing cool things, demonstrated by the LIFE chips. I guess the game of LIFE ultimately shows how the American Dream is such a central part of American culture and that the idea of obtaining material things as a sign of success and happiness has been ingrained in us from the start.
ReplyDeleteI think beyoud the pursuit of material objects, this game reflects more about the relationship between capitalism and American Dream. Compitition for earning salary or other material objects is driven by personal desire of accumulating wealth which is the nature of capitalism. Because of this motivation, many people struggle for their American Dreams to move up to the middle-or upper- class so that they could have more wealth to enjoy or use the wealth as capital to make more money.
ReplyDeleteI would just like to point out the we should notice the people put on the cover. The majority of them are white and not only that, it also seems to me that the men appear in the more dominant roles. Strictly speaking on the image, it looks like this one image incorporates many class concepts including a genderization of the American Dream.
ReplyDeleteAs the idea of the "American Dream" is quite known for the house, the car, the 2.5 family size, and wealth; I view it much differently. As a person who was never expected to "make it this far," my goal is just getting a superb education and setting out to do whatever my heart desires. It started off with just getting a chance to learn. As you can see, depending on the background in which an individual comes from, the "American Dream" varies, with typical house, car and family being the most cliche of them all. What this game doesn't take into account is the struggles that people from different cultural background have to endure just to be seen as equal.
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